OF CALIF. LIBRARY, WS 13G&LBS 



THE WALL AND 
THE GATES 

AND OTHER SERMONS 



By J. RITCHIE SMITH 
Professor of Homiletics, Princeton Theological Seminary 



PHILADELPHIA 

THE WESTMINSTER PRESS 

1919 



Copyright, 1919 

By 
F. M. BRASELMAN 



TO MY WIFE 



21329BO 



Contents 



Chapter Page 

I. The Wall 7 

II. The Gates 21 

III. The Immortal Dead 36 

IV. The Divided Waters 51 

V. The Inevitable Past 63 

VI. The Consuming Fire 76 

VII. The Risen Christ 86 

VIII. The Folly of Sin 99 

IX. True and False Religion 112 

X. The Promises 126 

XI. Called 144 

XII. Illusions 158 

XIII. Death and Life 171 

XIV. The Church 184 

XV. The Proverbs 199 

XVI. The Master's Prayer .' 210 

XVII. Contentment 221 

XVIII. Written Again 235 

XIX. The Symmetry of Life 250 

XX. The Thoughts of Love 266 



THE WALL 



THE WALL 

" Having a wall great and high." 

Rev. 21:12 

Two visions of paradise are given us in the Scrip- 
ture, one at the opening and the other at the close 
of the sacred record. History begins and ends with 
paradise. But there is a striking contrast between 
the Old Testament picture and the New. The para- 
dise of Genesis is a garden; the paradise of Reve- 
lation is a city. Life grows from the simple to the 
complex. History is one long evolution, a contin- 
uous process of the unfolding, enlarging, enriching 
of the race. History begins with one man and one 
woman roaming in childlike innocence through the 
sweet fields of Eden ; it closes with a multitude that 
no man can number gathered within the walls of a 
city the size and splendor of which as far surpass the 
glory of every capital besides as the heavens are high 
labove the earth. That is the progress of the race. 
The first city was built by Cain, and ever since the 
city has been, the haunt of vice and crime. " God 
made the country, and man made the town." But 
the city is also the home of the keenest intelligence, 
the noblest character, the most devoted service. It is 
at once the glory and the shame, the hope and the 
despair of the world. There man is found at his 
best and at his worst, there he rises to the loftiest 
heights, sinks to the lowest depths. There the ex- 



8 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

tremes of character and condition meet. The city 
with its rich, varied, intense, energetic life, its inti- 
mate fellowship, its boundless opportunities, its end- 
less charms and pleasures, its interweaving of inter- 
ests and relations, is the most imposing monument 
constructed by the genius and the power of man. 
Great cities are the heart and the brain of the world, 
and draw to themselves the young, the ardent, the 
ambitious from every side. Whether men seek 
wealth or fame or learning or pleasure or power, the 
city invites and allures with potent spell. With 
every step in the march of civilization the city as- 
sumes a place of increasing prominence and power. 

The names borne by this new paradise are sig- 
nificant. It is the New Jerusalem, a city old yet 
new. The New Jerusalem is the heavenly pattern 
of the Kingdom of God on earth. As Moses was 
commanded to build the tabernacle according to the 
pattern shown him on the mount, this is the divine 
plan after which the Church must be fashioned. 
Man was made in the image of God; earth in the 
likeness of heaven. Sin has marred the image and 
the likeness, but they shall one day be restored. 
The New Jerusalem is the picture of the Church as 
it shall be when the work of grace is completed, and 
eternal glory is begun. 

This is the divine plan after which God is slowly 
fashioning his Kingdom through the long process 
of the ages. 

Why is the name of the old city given it? Is there 
anything in this city of God with its flashing splen- 



THE WALL 9 

dors to remind us of the capital of David? Draw 
near and you will find much that is familiar. Upon 
the twelve gates are written the names of the twelve 
tribes of Israel. The twelve foundation stones of the 
wall of the city bear the names of the twelve apos- 
tles. Here is Thomas the doubter, and Peter the 
traitor, and others of whom we know nothing but 
the name. This is the material with which God 
builds the foundation of the wall of the eternal 
Kingdom. Enter the city and the great multitude is 
called after the twelve tribes of Israel. And the 
King whose glory is the light of the Celestial City, is 
the root and the offspring of David, the Lamb that 
was slain, betrayed, and condemned in old Jerusalem 
and crucified just outside the city gate. The Church, 
the Kingdom, in all ages is one. There is no break 
in the divine plan. The New Jerusalem succeeds the 
old, as David is followed by his greater Son. The 
New Testament springs out of the Old, the Christian 
inherits the privileges and advantages of the Jew. 
Yet the new dispensation is far greater than the old 
as the New Jerusalem is larger and more resplendent 
than the city of Israel's king. The old is the seed of 
the new, the new is the harvest of the old. This is 
Jerusalem, but Jerusalem transformed, glorified, 
with walls of jasper, gates of pearl, and streets of 
gold. It is no longer the capital of an earthly mon- 
arch, but of the King of kings ; no longer the home 
of the Jew, but of the whole brotherhood of man. 
"The nations shall walk amidst the light thereof: 
and the kings of the earth bring their glory into it." 



10 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

They that dwell there are gathered out of tall nations 
and kindreds and peoples and tongues. Within 
these ample walls is room for all the thronging 
myriads of earth. 

It is a great city nothing like it has ever been 
seen on earth. And it is a holy city. In Eden man 
was innocent; in the New Jerusalem man is holy. 
When man builds a city without God it becomes a 
sink of iniquity, like Sodom and Babylon. This is 
the city " which hath the foundations, whose builder 
and maker is God," whose walls are called salvation, 
and whose gates are praise. Men are no longer in- 
nocent. They are fearfully conscious of the power 
of evil. They bear upon their persons the scars of 
the long conflict with sin. The Master himself ap- 
pears as a Lamb that has been slain, with the marks 
of the nails, the spear, the crown of thorns. The re- 
deemed are not innocent; they have sinned and 
sinned deeply. But they are holy. They have en- 
countered sin, and though often worsted, they have 
overcome it through the blood of the Lamb. They 
have climbed from the innocence of childhood to the 
stern virtue, the holiness of manhood. That is the 
moral progress of the race. 

This is a holy city. But it is not the holiness of 
the hermitage, the cleanness of the cloister that is 
represented here. There are those who are in fear 
of death because the life beyond seems to them dim, 
spectral, phantasmal. Ghostly forms flit about 
wearily through the infinite spaces, seeking rest and 
finding none. That was a pagan conception of the 



THE WALL 11 

life to come, and it clings to men under all the light 
that the gospel has thrown upon the world beyond 
the grave. Death means the end of life, puts a final 
period to its interests, relations, activities. The 
other world, if there be another, is a region of pale 
and languid spirits that spend eternity in aimless 
wandering to and fro. But this is a city, throbbing 
with life and energy. Heaven is the great heart of 
the universe, through which the tides of grace and 
power flow out through all the wide universe. Life 
there is fuller, larger, richer, clothed with majesty, 
bearing the image, having the nature of God, exalted 
to the throne of him who created all things and now 
upholds them by the word of his power. Even a 
city with its busy multitude may be holy if God 
dwells in it. 

The book of Revelation opens with the picture of 
seven churches and closes with the vision of one 
city. The seven grow to one. God is ever drawing 
his children more closely together, and some day 
the prayer of the Master shall be answered, and all 
his disciples shall be one in him. The unity which 
is ideal here, imperfect in fact, shall there be fully 
accomplished. The seven churches are poor and 
sinful. The best of them have their faults and fail- 
ings ; some of them have sunk so low that they are 
threatened with speedy destruction unless they re- 
pent. Surely this is unpromising material out of 
which to build the Kingdom of God, these divided 
churches with their false doctrines and evil deeds. 
Yet from these churches this city is fashioned. 



12 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

These throngs that tread the streets of gold, arrayed 
in white robes, that raise the song of triumph and 
of praise as they surround the throne, that serve 
God without ceasing, these are they that came out 
of the pollution and defilement of earth, stained with 
many sins; but they washed their robes and made 
them white in the blood of the Lamb. The seven 
grow to one; the poor, weak, sinful churches are 
changed to the glorious Church, the bride, the 
L/amb's wife, made ready for the bridegroom, and 
having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing. The 
Kingdom of God is one, unfolding step by step and 
stage by stage from its humble origin in Eden to its 
glorious consummation in the New Jerusalem. We 
are building the Celestial City. Our labors, our 
prayers, our sacrifices are rearing the eternal home. 
It is the city of God, his handiwork, but into it 
enters the life and work of men. The incense of 
heaven is the prayers of the saints. The inhabitants 
of heaven are the sons of earth. Human names are 
written upon its walls and foundations. We are not 
only permitted by God's grace to enter the eternal 
city, we have a part in building it. 

If man is the child of God, he must share his 
Father's hatred of sin, must have a part in God's 
war against it, in God's triumph over it. If there is 
sin in God's universe, man cannot long remain 
ignorant of it. The son must take his place beside 
his Father in the battle against sin that threatens to 
wreck the universe, and make it all a hell. The path 
from innocence to holiness lies through temptation. 



THE WALL 13 

In the stress and strain of temptation the noblest 
character is formed. This may throw at least a ray 
of light upon the dark mystery of sin, and suggest 
why God permitted it to enter the world. When 
sin has gained a footing in the universe man must 
bear his part in driving it out. Man cannot remain 
innocent, he must press on to holiness, the holiness 
that recognizes sin, and overcomes it. 

As we look upon these pictures of the old paradise 
and the new, this conspicuous difference thrusts 
itself upon us. Eden lay open on every side. Only 
after sin had entered and done its deadly work did 
God place the cherubim on guard with flaming 
sword. Innocence is always in danger, for innocence 
is ignorant of evil. There are unwise parents who 
would rear their children in seclusion from the cares 
and temptations of life, shield them from all contact 
with things evil. It is a foolish endeavor and futile. 
Sooner or later they must meet the evil of which the 
world is full, and their eyes will be opened. To keep 
from them all knowledge of the Tempter and his 
snares is to expose them to his assaults without a 
shield. The best we can do for our children is to 
teach them the fear of God, warn them against the 
seductions of sin, and send them into the world with 
our prayers to fight the same battle that we have 
waged. To keep them in health of body and spirit 
it is not necessary to expose them to disease, but it 
is necessary to inculcate the laws of health, and show 
them the evils that they must encounter. 

The city is encircled by a great and high wall. Of 



14 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

course we do not interpret the description literally. 
We do not think of a city in the form of a cube, nor 
of a wall of brick or stone. The form, the dimen- 
sions, the wall of the city are all figures that repre- 
sent the perfections of the paradise above. Heaven 
must be painted in the colors of earth that our eyes 
may see it. What does the wall signify? What 
quality of the Kingdom of God does it represent? 
What is that in the Kingdom which answers to the 
wall of the holy city? The wall signifies separation. 
It divides those within the city from those without. 
Into these two classes all men. are divided, and they 
are separated by the wall, too high for men to climb, 
too strong for men to storm. The line is sharply 
drawn. " Blessed are they that wash their robes, 
that they may have the right to come to the tree of 
life, and may enter in by the gates into the city. 
Without are the dogs, and the sorcerers, and the 
fornicators, and the murderers, and the idolaters, and 
every one that loveth and maketh a lie." 

To those who are within the city, the wall means 
safety. There, as Augustine says, no enemy enters, 
thence no friend departs. The wall great and high 
is their sure defense. Eden is open on every side, 
the New Jerusalem is a stronghold into which the 
righteous runneth and is safe. Only the holy are 
safe, those who have met sin and overcome it 
through faith. " He that overcometh shall inherit 
these things ; and I will be his God, and he shall be 
my son." 

Within the wall is found all that the heart may 



THE WALL IS 

wish. The blessedness of the Kingdom is repre- 
sented in two ways : the absence of all that is evil, 
and the presence of all that is good. Whatever per- 
tains to sin, sorrow, suffering, is wanting there. In 
the description of the holy city how often the word 
" no " occurs. " Death shall be no more ; neither 
shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any 
more : the first things are passed away." " There 
shall be no more sea," barren, unstable, treacherous. 
As John looked out from his island prison, the sea 
lay before him as the barrier that stood between him 
and his home. There is nothing to divide us there. 
There is neither sun nor moon, for the glory of God 
is the light of the Celestial City, the glory of God as 
it shines in the face of Jesus Christ. The redeemed 
walk in the radiance of that uncreated light. There 
is no night. No darkness veils the face of God. 
Here night is a blessed boon. " He giveth his 
beloved sleep." We roll off the cares and burdens 
of the day, as the night enfolds us, and with the 
morning awake refreshed and strengthened for the 
labors of another day. But there we shall never 
grow weary. We shall no longer need to recruit 
our exhausted energies by surrendering one third 
of life to sleep, for we shall serve without weariness, 
and draw unfailing strength directly from the 
Fountainhead. Nothing unclean is found there, no 
soul that has not been washed and made white in 
the blood of the Lamb. 

" I saw no temple therein." The Temple was the 
center of the old city, representing the presence of 



16 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

God with his people. But what the Temple repre- 
sented in old Jerusalem is accomplished in the New 
Jerusalem. There God is revealed in the fullness 
of his grace and of his glory. " His servants shall 
serve him; and they shall see his face." This God, 
dwelling in light unapproachable, whom no man 
hath seen, or can see, they see him, and walk in the 
light of his countenance forever. And gathering up 
the whole within a single word John tells us that 
there shall be no more curse. Then shall the word 
of Zechariah find its ample fulfillment, " And men 
shall dwell therein, and there shall be no more 
curse ; but Jerusalem shall dwell safely." The curse 
that was pronounced in Eden and has rested upon 
man through all the ages of his strange eventful 
history is lifted from us at last by him who redeemed 
us from the curse of the law, having become a curse 
for us. The curse that was sinking us to hell he took 
upon himself, .and all they that put their trust in him 
are free. 

Nothing that partakes of the weakness, the imper- 
fection, the distress, the uncleanness of earth may 
enter the heavenly home. 

And, on the other hand, all that is most beautiful 
and precious on earth is employed to set forth the 
glories of the Celestial City. Language is the child 
of experience. We sometimes ask, Why is so little 
told us of the life beyond the grave? Perhaps God 
has told us all that we are able to comprehend. 
What language of earth may avail to express the 
bliss of heaven? There is a higher range of ex- 



THE WALL 17 

perience, a nobler order of life, which we have no 
words to express. The glories of heaven cannot be 
portrayed in the speech of earth. Yet, imperfect as 
they are, figures drawn from our own experience are 
the only means by which heaven may be represented 
to us. And John gathers all the treasures of earth 
within the walls of the city that we may understand 
something of the greatness and the riches of the 
Kingdom of God. Here are the sea of glass and 
the crystal river, and trees of unfading leaf and 
perennial fruit, gold and pearls and precious stones. 
Yet these are only the figures of the true wealth of 
the Kingdom. Beauty and gold and gems have no 
power to bring peace to the heart here, they cannot 
bring peace to the heart hereafter. If this were all 
that heaven has to offer, we should gaze with 
wonder upon the gates of pearl, walk up and down 
the golden streets, wander by the shores of the 
crystal river and the glassy sea, recline beneath the 
shade of the tree of life, hear the harps and halle- 
lujahs of the heavenly host ; and then we should turn 
our steps toward the gate, and say to the guardian 
angel stationed there : " I have seen- it all, and it is 
very beautiful, wonderful beyond words. Now, if 
you please, I should like to go home." It is not 
these things. that make heaven. They are only the 
earthly representation of realities that cannot be 
clothed in human speech. And the highest here is 
the lowest there. The gems that bedeck the breast 
of beauty, and sparkle in the diadems of kings, adorn 
the foundation of the walls of the Celestial City. 



18 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

Solomon made silver to be as stones in Jerusalem ; 
in the New Jerusalem gold is trodden underfoot. 
The best of earth is fit only for the feet of the saints. 
The crowns of earth are made of gold, and the 
streets of heaven. The most beautiful and precious 
treasures of earth yield only a faint reflection of the 
riches above. The wealth of heaven is not gold and 
gems, but faith and righteousness and love and peace 
and joy. If a man has no desire for these, heaven 
has nothing to offer him. But to him who seeks first 
the Kingdom of God and his righteousness it is said, 
heaven is all you want. 

In the midst of this magnificent description of the 
glories of the city of God, where language is strained 
to the utmost to portray what lies beyond the power 
of speech, there is found this simple line, that is 
worth immeasurably more than all the beauties and 
splendors of the scene : " God himself shall be with 
them, and be their God, and he shall wipe away 
every tear from their eyes." That is the jewel, all 
else is only the setting. The real heaven John paints 
for us with a single stroke. As we enter the gates 
of pearl with tear-stained faces, God comes to meet 
us, takes us in his arms, and with his own hand 
wipes away our tears, just :as our mother used to do 
when we ran to her in pain or fear. He does not 
send an angel to comfort us, he comes himself. 
Almighty God, Maker and Ruler of the universe, 
bids me welcome. The hand that fashioned the 
earth and spread abroad the heavens wipes away my 
tears. How many kinds of tears there are, as many 



THE WALL 19 

as the sorrows that beat upon; us, as the emotions 
that play upon our hearts. There are tears of pain, 
tears of remorse, tears of foreboding, tears of grief, 
tears of loneliness. God wipes them all away. 

Upon one occasion William Wilberforce, the phil- 
anthropist, and Robert Hall, the great preacher, of 
whom it is said that throughout his life he never 
knew a day free from pain, were talking together, 
when the conversation turned upon the life beyond 
the grave. " What is your idea of heaven, Mr. Wil- 
berforce ?" said Hall. And he replied : " My idea of 
heaven is love. And what is yours, Mr. Hall ? " 
" My idea of heaven is rest, sir, rest." "Love and 
rest, they are both contained in the promise God 
" shall wipe away every tear from their eyes." Our 
thought of heaven is colored by our experience. 
Every man whose face is turned toward the King- 
dom will find that to him heaven is the satisfaction 
of his deepest need, his supreme desire. 

Then with eyes undimmed, we shall look upon 
the face of God. We shall take to our arms again 
those whom death has stolen from us. And then we 
shall say to our Father : " Sometimes I thought thou 
hadst forgotten me ; and all the while thou wast pre- 
paring this for me. Truly my cup runneth over." 

The wall speaks of safety and peace to those who 
are within. But there are those who stand without. 
The wall divides. If there is peace and safety with- 
in, there is danger and death without. But the wall 
is pierced by twelve gates, that those who are with- 
out may enter ; and these gates are never closed. A 



20 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

wall with gates on every side, that is the picture. 
What does it mean? The wall excludes, the gate 
admits. You cannot scale the wall, but you may 
enter by the gate. You may enter the city of God, 
but you must enter by the appointed way. It is the 
new and living way which Jesus has opened to us. 
Within is the host of those who have been redeemed 
with precious blood; that blood avails for you. 
Without are those who reject the Saviour, though 
he died for them. The wall divides, but the gate in- 
vites. Though you stand outside, you may enter, 
and take your place with the people of God and 
share the joys of heaven. 



THE GATES 21 

II 
THE GATES 

"Having twelve gates." 

Rev. 21:12 

The holy city, New Jerusalem, is encircled by a 
wall great and high ; the wall is pierced with twelve 
gates. The wall signifies separation. It divides 
those within from those without. To those who are 
within, the wall signifies safety, peace; to those 
who are without it is a threat of danger and of death. 
The line is clearly and sharply drawn, and the wall is 
impregnable. Yet there is a way by which those 
who are without may enter. It is the way of the 
gate. If the wall means exclusion, the gate means 
welcome. If the wall forbids, the gate invites. And 
the gates are always open. 

There are only two classes of men recognized by 
Scripture, those who are within the Kingdom of 
God and those who are without. The wall repre- 
sents the boundary of the Kingdom. The day is 
coming for the individual and the race when the line 
of division shall be forever fixed. At death we enter 
upon our eternal state. The earthly life determines 
the nature of the life beyond the grave. " All that 
are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall come 
forth ; they that have done good, unto the resurrec- 
tion of life; and they that have done evil, unto the 
resurrection of judgment." John 5: 28, 29. "We 
must all be made manifest before the judgment-seat 



22 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

of Christ ; that each one may receive the things done 
in the body, according to what he hath done, 
whether it be good or bad." II Cor. 5:10. Lan- 
gauge could not affirm more plainly and emphati- 
cally that the basis of the final judgment is the pres- 
ent life. The Master has warned us. " Strive to 
enter in by the narrow door: for many, I say unto 
you, shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able." 
Why are they not able? Because they come too late. 
" When once the master of the house is risen up, and 
hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, 
and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, open to us ; 
and he shall answer and say to you, I know you not 
whence ye are ; then shall ye begin to say, We did 
eat and drink in thy presence, and thou didst teach in 
our streets ; and he shall say, I tell you, I know not 
whence ye are ; depart from me, all ye workers of in- 
iquity." Luke 13 :24-27. Then is the great gulf fixed 
that none may cross. And in that day it shall be 
said, " He that is unrighteous, let him do unright- 
eousness still : and he that is filthy, let him be made 
filthy still : and he that is righteous, let him do right- 
eousness still : and he that is holy, let him be made 
holy still." 

But till that day the gates are wide open, and 
whosoever will may come. The wicked may turn 
to God. " His blood can make the foulest clean," 
and in that blood the sinner may wash his robes 
that he may have right to the tree of life, and may 
enter through the gate into the city. If the wall 
seems to shut him out, the gate lets him in. 



THE GATES 23 

There are gates on every side. How vast, how 
catholic is the Kingdom of God. This New Jerusa- 
lem is not the home of the Jew alone, but of man- 
kind. Men of every race and kindred are gathered 
here. " They bring the glory and the honor of the 
nations into it " all nations. There is room and 
welcome for all the tribes of earth. There are three 
gates on the east, looking toward China, India, 
Japan, with their teeming myriads of souls. There 
is a place for this vast multitude in the Kingdom of 
God, and already they are coming. The vanguard of 
the mighty host has entered through the gates of 
pearl into the city of God. There are three gates 
on the north, and through them our ancestors found 
entrance to the Kingdom, the men of Britain and 
Normandy and the German forests, as far as the 
frozen regions toward the pole. There are three 
gates on the south, where three great continents, 
Africa, Australia, South America, shall yield their 
sons and daughters unto God. There are three gates 
on the west. The new world is as near the King- 
dom as the old. From every side the nations are 
streaming into the city in numbers fast increasing 
from year to year. The multitude that no man can 
number is fashioned out of all nations and kindreds 
and peoples and tongues under the whole heaven. 
The Kingdom is a magnet that draws to itself all 
that is worthy in the life and achievements of men. 
Every race contributes its choicest and its best to 
adorn and enrich the city of God. The Anglo-Saxon 
is there with his indomitable energy and love of 



24 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

freedom and inventive genius; the Latin, with his 
sense of beauty and artistic skill ; the Chinaman, with 
his practical sagacity and patient toil ; the Slav, with 
his stubborn tenacity ; the Japanese, with mind quick, 
eager, alert ; the Hindu, with his subtle thought and 
brooding soul and mystic temper ; the Jew with his 
marvelous vitality and spirit of mastery, crowned 
with the promises of God. In him who bought 
them with his blood, they are all one in the holy 
city, " Where there cannot be Greek and Jew, cir- 
cumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, 
bondman, freeman; but Christ is all, and in all.'' 
Widely as they differ, they are one in him, and his 
name is written upon them every one. 

The city lies open to all ages. There are gates on 
the east; the Kingdom opens toward the cradle. 
" Suffer the little children to come unto me," said 
the Master ; " forbid them not : for to such belongeth 
the kingdom of God." And again he said, " Except 
ye turn, and become as little children, ye shall in no 
wise enter into the kingdom of heaven." What a 
throng of little children is ceaselessly pressing into 
the Kingdom ! Set the cradle close beside the open 
gate. Teach your children from their earliest years 
that they belong to God, that Christ died for them, 
that the Kingdom is theirs if they will enter. They 
may learn to love God as soon as they learn to love 
their mother, and from the beginning of conscious 
life may be trained to walk in his ways and do his 
will. It is our glad faith that all who die in infancy 
are saved through the grace of Christ, and he is con- 



THE GATES 25 

tinually gathering them in his arms as he delighted 
to do in the days of his flesh. Then he blessed them 
and the blessing still abides. Whom the Master 
blesses, none may curse. 

There are gates on the west. Some of us have 
left the days of childhood far behind. But no mat- 
ter where you may be on life's journey, there is a 
gate near by. While life remains, there is always an 
open gate before you. If we find it harder to enter 
the Kingdom as we grow older, it is not because the 
gates are fewer, or because the gates ;are closed. 
The change is in ourselves. The gates are as many 
as before, and as inviting as before, but we are less 
inclined to enter. The holy city loses the charm it 
once had for us as we fall under the power of sin. 
But the gates are wide open still. God does not 
close the gate against the sinner, but the sinner may 
close his heart against God. Let us thank God that 
there are as many gates toward the sunset as toward 
the sunrise. This side of death it is never too late 
to enter. The way to the Kingdom is as open to 
the old man as to the little child. Whatever your 
age, your condition, your experience, your sin, there 
is an open gate just before you by which God invites 
you to enter into life eternal. Every man's life opens 
on the Kingdom. 

Who are they that stand outside? This is the 
shameful company: " Without are the dogs, and the 
sorcerers, and the fornicators, and the murderers, 
and the idolaters, and every one that loveth and 
maketh a lie." If such as these were suffered to 



26 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

enter, they would defile and pollute the city with 
their presence. It would be no longer holy, no 
longer the New Jerusalem, but would bear the like- 
ness of that old city against which the Lord Jesus 
launched the woes which were so terribly fulfilled. 

" What fellowship have righteousness and ini- 
quity? or what communion hath light with dark- 
ness?" Without holiness no man shall see the Lord ; 
how then shall these find a place within the wall? 
" Who shall ascend into the hill of Jehovah and who 
shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean 
hands, and a pure heart." " Depart from me, all ye 
workers of iniquity," is the sentence of the Judge in 
the great Day. " But for the fearful, and unbeliev- 
ing, and abominable, and murderers and fornicators, 
and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their part 
shall be in the lake that burneth with fire and brim- 
stone ; which is the second death." If the city shall 
be holy surely there can be no place there for such as 
these, stained with the foulest vices and crimes. 

Yet as we look upon the multitude gathered 
within the wall of the New Jerusalem, we observe 
what a motley company it is. The first named 
among those that stand without are the dogs. Dog 
is a term of dislike and contempt in the Scriptures, 
as it is throughout the East to this day. No more 
offensive name may be applied to a man, for it desig- 
nates him as unclean and disgusting. " Beware of 
the dogs," wrote Paul to the Philippians, warning 
them against the false teachers who would lead them 
astray. The term was commonly applied by the 



THE GATES 27 

Jews to the Gentiles ; and our Lord seemed to sanc- 
tion that use of the word when in order to test the 
faith of the Syrophoenician woman he said to her. 
" Let the children first be filled : for it is not meet to 
take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs." 
In this city that bears the name of Jerusalem what 
room is there for the Gentiles who were accounted 
no better than dogs? Yet the city is filling fast with 
Gentiles from every quarter of the earth. This is 
the New Jerusalem, where there is no more Jew or 
Gentile, but all are one in Christ. All peoples and 
races have an equal place in the city of God. 

" Without are the sorcerers." But are there 
no sorcerers here? Is not this the company of 
those who were accustomed to practice magical 
arts in Ephesus, but moved by the preaching of 
Paul brought their books together and burned them 
in the sight of all the multitude to the value of fifty 
thousand pieces of silver? And is not this Simon 
Magus, who in Samaria used sorcery, and was 
named by the people " that power of God which is 
called Great " ; the man who recognized in the apos- 
tles a might beyond his own, and sought to purchase 
it with money, seeking the power without the holi- 
ness of the Spirit, and was rebuked and condemned 
by Peter : " Thy silver perish with thee, because 
thou hast thought to obtain the gift of God with 
money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this mat- 
ter: for thy heart is not right before God. Repent 
therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray the 
Lord, if perhaps the thought of thy heart shall be 



28 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

forgiven thee. For I see that thou art in the gall of 
bitterness and in the bond of iniquity " ? Then 
Simon feared and said to Peter, " Pray ye for me to 
the Lord, that none of the things which ye have 
spoken come upon me." Is this Simon Magus 
standing here? I think it is, but I am not sure. 
How many sorcerers are here, who practiced evil 
arts in heathen lands, priests, medicine men, witch 
doctors, crafty, cunning, murderous? " Without are 
sorcerers " but they are found within too, a host 
of them from every land beneath the sun. 

" Without are the fornicators, and the murder- 
ers." The duty of chastity, the sanctity of human 
life, are first principles in the ethics of the Kingdom. 
" Every sin that a man doeth is without the body ; 
but he that committeth fornication sinneth against 
his own body." I Cor. 6 : 18. " Whoso sheddeth 
man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed : for in 
the image of God made he man." Murder is the 
crime without remedy. For many offenses atone- . 
ment may be made, the damage inflicted may be ' 
repaired. But no satisfaction can be made for mur- " 
der. Surely then there can be no place for the for- 
nicator and the murderer in the holy city. But who 
is this that leads the great chorus of praise which - 
rises unceasingly before the throne? It is David, 
the king, sweet singer of Israel, whose psalms have 
brought cheer and comfort to the hearts of God's 
people for three thousand years David, the adul- 
terer, who stole Bath-sheba from her husband, and 
sent brave and loyal Uriah to his death David, 



THE GATES 29 

stained with the basest crimes. And who is this 
about whom so many are eagerly gathered that they 
may look upon his face and hear his words? This 
is Saul of Tarsus, who also is called Paul. His 
hands were red with the blood of the saints. Hear 
him tell the story. " I persecuted this Way unto the 
death." " When they were put to death I gave my 
vote against them/' " When the blood of Stephen 
thy witness was shed, I also was standing by, and 
consenting and keeping the garments of them that 
slew him." And a great company of those whose 
lives were blackened with these foul sins are gath- 
ered here with David and with Paul. " Without 
are the fornicators, and the murderers " but 
many of them are within too, men who on earth 
were guilty of the most heinous sins toward God 
and man. 

" Without are the idolaters." Idolatry is the 
last extremity of sin. All sins besides are trans- 
gressions of the law of God, idolatry presumes to 
dethrone him. Surely there can be no room for 
idolaters in this city, where he reigns supreme and 
receives the glad homage of the universe. Yet who 
is this imposing figure? Is not this King Solomon, 
who restored idolatry when it was virtually extinct 
in Israel, who forsook the God of his fathers to go 
after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and 
after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammorites; 
who built a high place for Chemosh, the abomination 
of Moab, in the mount that is before Jerusalem, and 
for Molech, .the abomination of the children of Am- 



30 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

mon? And is this not Manasseh, wayward son of 
the good king Hezekiah, who built again the high 
places which his father had destroyed, and reared up 
altars for Baal, and made an Asherah, as did Ahab, 
king of Israel, and worshiped all the host of heaven, 
and served them? He did not shrink from profan- 
ing the Temple itself with that worship, for "He 1 
built altars in the house of Jehovah, whereof Jehovah 
said, In Jerusalem will I put my name ; and he built 
altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of 
the house of Jehovah . . . And he set the graven 
image of Asherah, that he had made, in the house of 
which Jehovah said to David and Solomon his son, 
In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen 
out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name 
for ever." II Kings 21 : 3-7. And as if there were no 
bounds to his wickedness " he made his son to pass 
through the fire, and practised augury, and used en- 
chantments, and dealt with them that had familiar 
spirits, and with wizards." And yet further, that 
his cup of iniquity might be filled to overflowing, he 
" shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled 
Jerusalem from one end to another." He seemed 
to have heaped upon himself all the guilt of which 
man is capable. Yet the writer of II Chronicles 
tells us that he too found his way into the Kingdom 
of God. If these men may enter the holy city, these 
men who not only themselves wandered far from 
God, but turned the whole nation to the worship of 
false gods, what idolater is there who may not hope 
to find a place there ? And a great army of idolaters 



THE GATES 31 

from every corner of the earth is streaming through 
the gates of pearl and treading the golden streets, 
and singing the song of the Lamb that was slain. 
Worshipers of every false God known to men are 
now numbered .among the saints of the Most High. 
" Without are the idolaters " but they are within 
too, a mighty army which shall not cease to grow 
until all the ransomed are gathered home. 

" Without is ... every one that loveth and 
maketh a lie." All liars shall have their part in the 
lake that burneth with fire and brimstone ; which is 
the second death. Falsehood is of the Devil. 
" When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own : 
for he is a liar, and the father thereof." John 8 : 44. 
Liars are the children of the Devil, how then shall 
they find a place in the Kingdom of God? But who 
is this commanding figure? It is Abraham, who 
wears the loftiest titles ever conferred upon a 
son of man; father of the faithful, friend of God. 
Yet Abraham, in fear of death, twice surrendered 
Sarah, his wife, with a. lie. And who are these be- 
side him? Isaac and Jacob. "Many shall come 
from the east and the west, and shall sit down with 
Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of 
heaven." Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, liars every one. 
And this is Peter, who told the basest lie in history, 
the lie that can never be repeated, who denied the 
Master who was on his way to the cross for him, 
denied him with cursing and swearing ; " I do not 
know the man, I swear I do not know him, may God 
curse me if I know him." And heaven is full of 



32 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

men and women who on earth lifted up their souls 
unto falsehood and swore deceitfully. How many 
are there indeed who have never turned aside to lies, 
or sought shelter in falsehood when they feared to 
speak the truth? "Without are the liars" but 
there is a host of them within too, and few are they 
who dare affirm, " My lips have always obeyed the 
law of truth." 

" Without are the dogs, and the sorcerers, and the 
fornicators, and the murderers, and the idolaters, 
and every one that loveth and maketh a lie." Yet a 
great company of them is found within the wall. 
Every class that is named as excluded has a host 
of representatives amid the multitude of the re- 
deemed. There is no sin so black, no crime so 
abominable that it may not be laid to the charge of 
some of those who stand before the throne of God. 
What does it mean? It means that sin shuts no 
man out of heaven, else heaven would be empty, for 
all they who have entered there are sinners, and 
many of them were sinners of the deepest dye. 
There is no sin that men may commit that they have 
not committed, no depths of iniquity that they have 
not fathomed. Their lips were foul, their hearts 
were black, their hands were stained with blood. 
Liars, fornicators, murderers, idolaters, they are all 
here. Sin excludes no man from the Kingdom, else 
none could enter. What is it then that shuts men 
out? It is sin unrepented of and unforgiven. How 
did these sinners who throng the streets of the Ce- 
lestial City find the way to enter? "Blessed are 



THE GATES 33 

they who do his commandments," we read in the 
Authorized Version ; but the Revised Version reads, 
" Blessed are they who wash their robes, that they 
may have the right to come to the tree of life, and 
may enter in by the gates into the city." In what 
fountain of cleansing shall they wash their robes 
with all the stains of earth upon them? In the 
blood of the Lamb. By that blood they are re- 
deemed, in that blood they are cleansed. They 
enter heaven not through any merit of their own, 
not arrayed in their own righteousness, but through 
the infinite merit and clad in the perfect righteous- 
ness of the Son of God. Paul wrote to the Corinth- 
ians, " Be not deceived : neither fornicators, nor idol- 
aters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of 
themselves with men, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor 
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall in- 
herit the kingdom of God. And such were some 
of you : but ye were washed, but ye were sanctified, 
but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and in the Spirit of our God." These are 
sinners who fill the courts of heaven, but they are 
sinners repentant, forgiven, blood bought, blood 
washed. Therefore are they before the throne of 
God; and serve him day and night in his temple, 
and rejoice before him with exceeding and eternal 
joy. 

As we look upon this company we may ask, If 
there is room for such as these in the Kingdom of 
God, who may not hope to enter? You may have 
been a great sinner, may have committed the most 



34 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

heinous crimes. You cannot be a greater sinner 
than many of these have been, you cannot bear a 
heavier load of guilt than that which rested upon 
them. No matter what your sin may be, you may 
find here in this goodly company of the redeemed 
not one, but many who sinned just as you have 
sinned, whose offense was precisely the same as 
yours, who provoked God and injured their fellow 
men in exactly the same way as you have done. 
Every sin that you have committed, or could ever 
commit, has been committed times without number 
by those that are now numbered among the people 
of God. They sinned, but they repented, they 
turned to him who taketh away the sin of the world, 
and their sins were forgiven for his name's sake. 
The condition of life in the first paradise was obe- 
dience ; the condition of coming to the tree of life in 
the paradise above is repentance and faith, the 
faith that overcomes through the blood of the Lamb. 
There is no sin so grievous that it will shut you out 
of the Kingdom of God if you draw near in peni- 
tence and faith to him who said, " I am the door ; by 
me if any man enter in, he shall be saved." 

The city is surrounded by a wall great and high. 
But the wall is pierced by twelve gates. The wall 
speaks of separation, division; the gates speak of 
admission, welcome. If the wall would shut us out, 
the gate lets us in. We may enter, but we must 
enter by the appointed way, which is Christ Jesus. 
None may enter but through him, through him all 
may enter. There are two ways by which men seek 



THE GATES 35 

to enter into life, the way of justice and the way of 
mercy. There are those who would enter heaven 
by self-righteousness and good works. He who ful- 
fills the law has no need of grace; heaven is his of 
right. But the law requires perfect obedience. 
" Cursed is every one who continueth not in all 
things that are written in the book of the law, 
to do them." " For whosoever shall keep the 
whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is 
become guilty of all." A single sin puts men out- 
side the pale of the law, and incurs its condemnation. 
Christ is the divine standard, and he who would 
reach heaven by the way of justice must present be- 
fore God a life as perfect as his. The way of justice 
is the way of death ; the way of mercy is the way of 
life. The Pharisee prayed, " God, be just to me the 
righteous ;" the publican prayed, " God, be merci- 
ful to me the sinner," and " went down to his house 
justified rather than the other.'* Not by the way of 
justice but only by the way of mercy which is opened 
to us in Christ Jesus may we hope to enter the 
Kingdom of God. Justice is the wall around the 
city, mercy is the open gate. 



36 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

III 
THE IMMORTAL DEAD 

The dead man touching the bones of Elisha revived. 

II Kings 13:21 

Miracles are not numerous in the Scriptures. You 
may find more of them in the biography of a single 
saint than in all the sacred story. Ordinarily God 
fulfills his purpose through the medium of the laws 
and forces which he has ordained. But he is not 
bound by them; he is not entangled in a network 
which his own hands have woven. Sometimes he 
makes bare his arm and supersedes the common 
processes of nature, that men may look beyond 
nature to nature's Lord. God is in the world, but 
God is above it, too. Scripture portrays at once the 
immanent and the transcendent God. In this variety 
of method the divine wisdom conspicuously appears. 
Faith in the uniformity of nature is essential to all 
our knowledge, to all our activity. All our calcula- 
tions are based upon it. That the course of nature 
will pursue its unvarying round, that the sun will 
tread its wonted path through the heavens, that the 
seasons will come and go with the interchange of 
seedtime iand harvest, that the properties of matter 
and of spirit abide evermore all unchanged upon 
these assumptions our hopes and purposes are 
builded. Else to-morrow might usher us into a new 
world, where all our past experience would be con- 
founded. If miracles were so frequent as to shatter 



THE IMMORTAL DEAD 37 

or disturb our faith in the constancy of nature, they 
would tear away the ground on which we stand, rob 
us of the principles by which life is governed, de- 
stroy the motives of industry, and lead us from the 
realm of law to the realm of chance. But on the 
other hand if that uniformity were never broken, we 
might conclude that there is no power in the uni- 
verse higher than the forces to which we have grown 
accustomed. If miracles were common we might 
lose faith in nature ; if they were wanting, we might 
lose faith in God. There are miracles, but they are 
few, that we may believe alike in nature and in 
nature's God. 

The Old Testament records about fifty miracles. 
Few as they are they are not equally distributed, but 
are gathered in clusters about certain illustrious 
names and memorable epochs. Four fifths of them 
were wrought during two notable eras, which to- 
gether embrace not more than one hundred and 
twenty years the era of the Exodus from Egypt 
and the conquest of Canaan, and the days of Elijah 
and Elisha. Those were critical times and God in- 
terposed with strong hand and outstretched arm for 
the salvation of his people. 

The story of the text furnishes the only instance 
in Scripture of a miracle wrought through the dead. 
Ordinarily God works through the living. But God 
can use the bones of the dead as well as the voice of 
the living prophet. The purpose of the miracle is 
evidence when we recall the circumstances of the 
time. A succession of weak and wicked kings had 



38 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

brought Israel to the verge of ruin. Year by year 
the Moabites were accustomed to invade and ravage 
the land. During one of their incursions this inci- 
dent took place. As a company of Israelites were 
engaged in burying a man they spied a band of 
Moabites appoaching, and hurriedly thrust the 
corpse into the tomb of Elisha. When the man 
touched the bones of the prophet he revived and 
stood up on his feet. Obviously the miracle would 
give new weight and power to the words of Elisha, 
as if he spake again from the grave. God sets his 
seal to the message of the prophet. The evils were 
rife, the perils imminent, against which Elisha had 
warned the people, and now, though dead, he lifted 
up his voice and from the sepulcher called them to 
repentance. 

But the miracle taught a lesson yet more impor- 
tant. Elisha is dead, but Elisha's God lives. His 
power is not broken because a poor human instru- 
ment has fallen from his hand. When the king 
wept over the face of the dying prophet he cried, 
" My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and the 
horsemen thereof ! " For Elisha had been the 
strength of Israel, the bulwark of the state. Yet 
not Elisha, but Elisha's God. On the tomb of John 
Wesley in Westminster Abbey is the inscription, 
" God buries the workman but carries on the work." 
When the soul of Mohammed passed away the peo- 
ple would not believe th'at he was dead. " How can 
Ke be dead, our witness, our intercessor, our me- 
diator with God ? He is not dead ; like Moses and 



THE IMMORTAL DEAD 39 

Jesus he is wrapped in a holy trance, and speedily 
will he return to his faithful people." Omar threat- 
ened to strike off the head of him who should dare 
to affirm that the prophet was no more. But 
Abubeker cried, " Is it Mohammed or the God of 
Mohammed whom you worship? The God of Mo- 
hammed liveth forever, but the apostle was a mortal 
like ourselves. " God will not suffer us to rest in 
men. After Elijah comes Elisha, after Elisha comes 
God, 

" God fulfills himself in many ways, 
Lest one good custom should corrupt the world." 

The Kingdom of heaven does not move in a circle. 
It has its routine, it has its surprises too. Through 
teaching, through miracles, by the hand of the living 
and by the hand of the dead, the will of God is 
done. 

The text furnishes an illustration in the physical 
sphere of a spiritual truth. The power of life does 
not terminate with death. The grave is not a place 
of darkness and emptiness. A thousand streams of 
power flow from it to bless or curse the world. 
There is no tongue so eloquent, no hand so mighty 
as those upon which death has set its solemn seal, 
clothing them with a sanctity beyond the power of 
life to bestow. The most potent forces that operate 
upon the hearts of men and shape the fortunes of the 
race emanate from the grave. Consider the law of 
heredity. Body and soul are a heritage, transmitted 



40 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

from a long line of ancestry. Inclination, disposi- 
tion, temperament, whence come they? They are 
no new creation, they are our inheritance. Inquire 
whence you have derived your physical and mental 
characteristics, your features, constitution, tenden- 
cies, and you may find the secret of them buried in 
some long-forgotten grave. The souls of the de- 
parted live again in us, their children. Men are 
bound in fetters of appetite and passion that were 
forged centuries ago. As a storm a thousand miles 
out at sea drives the swell and surge of the Atlantic 
upon our coast, so we are borne upon the rush and 
sweep of forces that were begotten when the world 
was young. The fingers of the dead are always 
playing upon our hearts and evoking the music and 
the discords of our lives. The living must own the 
sway of those from whom soul and body are de- 
rived, in whom we were fashioned generations be- 
fore we were born. 

The law holds good upon the largest scale. The 
world in which we live is the work of ghostly fingers. 
What have we that the dead have not given us? 
What do we know that the dead have not taught us ? 
What are we that the dead have not made us? Plato 
and Aristotle fill the chair of philosophy in every 
college in Christendom. Hannibal and Caesar still 
ride the storms of war, and muster contending hosts 
to battle. Every day Socrates is propounding 
questions and teaching morals in market places and 
on the street corners. The will of Peter the Great, 
if we may trust tradition, has dictated the policy of 



THE IMMORTAL DEAD 41 

Russia for two hundred years, and the fortunes of 
that mighty empire lay in the grasp of skeleton fin- 
gers. Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, Webster 
are potent in the councils of the Republic to-day. 
John Marshall administers justice upon the bench of 
the Supreme Court. If we are lifted higher and see 
further than our fathers, it is because we have 
climbed upon their shoulders. The living execute 
the mandates of the mighty dead 

" The dead but sceptred sovereigns who still rule 
Our spirits from their urns." 

Moses gives law to the civilized world after thirty 
centuries have passed. In every worshiping con- 
gregation David leads the song of praise, and Peter 
and Paul and John preach the gospel every Sunday 
in ten thousand pulpits. Hush the voices of the 
dead and the sweetest music of earth would be put 
to silence. 

The law prevails in individual experience. " The 
life of the dead," said Cicero, " is placed in the mem- 
ory of the living." We canonize the dead. Every 
household, every heart has its saints. We strew 
their graves with flowers, we keep their memory 
green in our hearts. 

" That's hallowed ground where mourned and missed 
The lips repose our love has kissed; 
But where's their memory's mansion? Is't 

Yon church-yard's bowers? 
No! In ourselves their souls exist, 

A part of ours." 



42 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

When the sacred writer would incite us to patient 
endurance and strenuous endeavor in the Christian 
race, next to the vision of Jesus, who himself on 
earth trod this way before us, and now in heaven 
waits to award the prize, he finds no more inspiring 
thought than the great cloud of witnesses that com- 
pass us about, the spirits of the departed, who look 
down upon us from the heights which they have 
won. How many are there who have said with Mark 
Antony, as the earth was heaped upon the lifeless 
clay, " My heart is in the coffin there." The most 
sacred memories, the most potent inspirations known 
to earth are those which center in the grave. Trace 
to their sources the influences that have molded your 
character and shaped your life, and they lead you to 
the resting places of the dead. If I should ask you 
what are the mightiest forces that play upon your 
life to-day, whither would you lead me? Not to 
your place of business, not to the house of God, not 
even to your home, with its empty seats at the table, 
its broken circle you would lead me from the 
haunts of the living to some quiet spot where the 
dead are sleeping, the little country churchyard or 
the crowded cemetery of the great city, and point- 
ing to the name engraved on headstone or monu- 
ment, would say, " The man, the woman, who made 
me, who is making me, what I am, lies there." The 
worship of saints, the veneration of relics, is only a 
mistaken recognition of the truth that " the actions 
of the just smell sweet and blossom in the dust." 



THE IMMORTAL DEAD 43 

In his " Philosophy of the Christian Religion," 
Principal Fairbairn tells us of his own experience. 
" He who writes these things once knew a man who 
was to him companion, friend, and more than 
brother. They lived, they thought, they argued to- 
gether ; together they walked on the hillside and by 
the seashore; they had listened to the wind as it 
soughed through the trees and to the multitudinous 
laughter of the waves as they broke upon the beach ; 
together they had watched the purple light which 
floated radiant above the heather and together they 
had descended into the slums of a great city, where 
no light was nor any fragrance, and had faced the 
worst depravity of our kind. Each kept hope alive in 
the other and stimulated him to high endeavor and 
better purpose ; but though the same week saw the 
two friends settled in chosen fields of labor, the one 
settled only to be called home, the other to remain 
and work his tale of toil until his longer day be done. 
But the one who died seemed to leave his spirit 
behind in the breast of the man who survived ; and 
he has lived ever since, and lives still, feeling as if 
the soul within him belonged to the man who died." 
And he adds, " May we not say this experience is 
common and interprets the experience of the race? " 
Surely we can all testify from our own experience 
that the influence of those we loved was not buried 
in the grave but abides with us in sanctifying and 
inspiring power. Therefore is it " Better to have 
loved and lost than never to have loved at all "? 



44 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

What is true of those who have gone before is true 
of us. " I shall not all die," said the old Roman. 
" Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die," 
said the Master, " it abideth alone ; but if it die it 
bringeth forth much fruit." Life is a seed that must 
be sown before it will yield its harvest. The power 
of life is not exhausted in the few fleeting years that 
we sojourn in the flesh. We cannot put forth the 
full measure of our strength until the earth has 
closed above us. We shall live in other hearts, work 
on in other lives that we shall move and fashion in 
generations yet unborn. We are the bridge that 
shall transmit the past to the future, and to-morrow 
shall have nothing but what is given by to-day. 
" To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die." 
Even as our Master wrought for a few years in 
the flesh and now and forever carries on his work 
through those in whom his Spirit dwells, in whom 
he lives again, so do we, in our small way, on our 
humble scale, spend a little time in the labor of the 
flesh and thereafter wield a larger power and carry 
on a greater work through those whose lives have 
been molded and kindled by ours. The torch of 
knowledge, of liberty, of religion is passed from hand 
to hand throughout the generations of men, and be- 
cause we were faithful in our place the ends of the 
earth shall see the salvation of our God. We do 
not cease to serve when we cease to live. Of us 
shall be born 



THE IMMORTAL DEAD 45 

" The crowning race 
Of those that eye to eye shall look 
On knowledge; under whose command 
Is Earth and Earth's, and in their hand 
Is nature like an open book; 

No longer half-akin to brute, 
For all we thought and loved and did, 
And hoped, and suffered, is but seed 
Of what in them is flower and fruit." 

The story of Elijah illustrates this truth. His 
magnificent victory on Carmel, where he contended 
alone against a host and overcame them in the power 
of God, seemed barren of result. Even he, the man 
of iron, lost heart and fled. He cried with Isaiah, " I 
have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for 
nought." But was there no fruit of that bold and 
earnest ministry? What was the greatest work that 
Elijah wrought? It was not the smiting of the land 
with drought, it was not the slaughter of the priests 
of Baal. The noblest work of Elijah was Elisha. 
God gave him to train his successor, that when the 
prophet's mantle fell from his shoulders it might rest 
upon one who was worthy to wear it. God prepared 
Elisha for the service of the Kingdom through 
Elijah. Though a man of very different temper, he 
was made partaker of the spirit of his master, and 
the new prophet caught the inspiration of the old. 
The spirit of Elijah lived again in him, never ceased 
from Israel, and nine hundred years later flamed 
forth in the fiery zeal of John the Baptist. Thus the 
Kingdom grows in orderly progression. No gener- 



46 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

ation, no man, is isolated and distinct. Each is a 
link in the chain, springing out of that which pre- 
cedes, leading on to that which follows. The great- 
est work that any man can accomplish is to train a 
successor, that his work shall not die with him. The 
tree not only yields its own fruit but gives birth to 
other trees, and the harvest is propagated far and 
wide. So 

" May I join the choir invisible 
Of those immortal dead who live again, 
In minds made better by their presence 
Whose music is the gladness of the world." 

Influence after death is in line with the influence 
of the life. Elijah's ministry was destructive, 
Elisha's was beneficent. It was Elisha's body, as 
we should expect, that with a touch restored the 
dead to life. There is a law of spiritual inertia. We 
set in motion forces that work on forever in straight 
lines. With death our 1 influence escapes us and we 
have no power to increase or lessen it or alter its 
direction by a hair's breadth. " Gather up my in- 
fluence and bury it with me," cried a young man on 
his deathbed, but he cried in vain. As soon call 
back the ripples that the stone makes in the quiet 
lake, as soon still the throbbing of the air when 
smitten with the sound of thunder, as reclaim the 
influence of a life. While the thought is in your 
heart, while the word is in your mouth, while the 
deed is in your hand, it is yours. You may give it or 
withhold. But once the thought is expressed, once 
the word is spoken, once the deed is done, they are 



THE IMMORTAL DEAD 47 

yours no longer. The influence that has gone out 
from us into the great world we can no more recall 
than the river can recall the waters that it has 
poured into the sea. Now we are determining the 
nature of the power that we shall exercise upon the 
world to the end of time. Now we are shaping the 
forces that shall soon break away from our control 
to enter upon their mission of cursing or of blessing. 
We have read in Eastern tales of men who called up 
spirits from the vasty deep, and trembled before 
them when they appeared, terrified at the success of 
their incantations. Often should we fear if, from the 
undiscovered future, we could call up the spirits that 
we to-day are loosing from their prison house, the 
forces that we are setting in motion to work upon 
the hearts of men. How solemn is the thought, 
what I am here I shall be forever ; what I do here I 
shall do forever. Are you willing that all the future 
shall bear the impression of the present? Are you 
willing to be, to do, forever, what you are doing 
now ? Are you walking where you would have your 
children tread in your footsteps? Are you leading 
the life that you would have them lead? Though a 
man be careless of his own life, let him think of the 
lives that >are bound up with his. God has united 
us with strong cords of interest and affection as men 
are fastened together when they climb the Alps, that 
if one slip and fall his companions may hold him 
fastj but sometimes it happens that the rope which 
was designed for safety proves their destruction, and 
they drag each other down to death. God has knit 



48 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

our hearts and lives together with innumerable 
bonds that we may help one another, that each may 
profit by the strength of all. But this very kinship, 
the very closeness of the ties that unite us, gives 
power to evil as to good. The opportunity to help 
is no less an opportunity to harm. The thought may 
well give us pause, if we are treading the ways of 
sin. The disposition, the temper, the habits that are 
mine I shall bequeath to my children, and through 
them the evil of my life shall bear its bitter fruit long 
after I am gone. 

Let this teach us something of the greatness and 
dignity of life. There are many who live ignobly 
because they are persuaded that it matters little how 
they live. They lack motive, incentive, inspiration. 
In this vast world, of what account is one little life? 
What can it accomplish ? It is no more than a single 
drop in the boundless sea, a leaf in the forest, and 
when it falls the great world swings on unmoved. It 
can serve no higher purpose than to sport away its 
little hour and cease to be. We iare all beset at times 
by thoughts like these. We feel the need of the 
quickening power of high ideals, something to make 
us realize that life is not a bare struggle for existence 
or an aimless round of pleasure. Upon this point the 
word of God labors continually. Here the Lord 
Jesus put forth the utmost of his strength. The 
human soul is the noblest work of God. It is the one 
creation of the Almighty into which he put himself. 
The heavens and the earth are the work of his 
fingers, but the soul of man is the breath of his 



THE IMMORTAL DEAD 49 

Spirit. Into the form of clay he breathed something 
of himself, and man became a living soul. He is 
godlike, immortal, with dominion over all God's 
handiwork; not God's creature only but his child, 
made in the Father's likeness, partaker of the 
Father's nature. He is clothed with power to shape 
the issues of the future, even to lay hands upon 
eternity. Something of the divine energy is given 
him, the power to work not for to-day alone or to- 
morrow, but for all time, forever. You may build 
your life work into the eternal and all glorious 
Kingdom of God. You can do little, but that little 
shall be multiplied by eternity. Eternity is the 
harvest field of time, heaven is the harvest field of 
earth. Be not content to live one life alone. You 
may continue to serve God on earth long after you 
have entered upon the richer service of the heavenly 
Kingdom. To leave behind us a cherished memory, 
an example that shall be an inspiration, that shall 
make for truth and righteousness in all coming time, 
and then with character developed and powers 
trained by the discipline of earth to bear a part in 
that larger, nobler service, which the redeemed 
above are permitted to render, glorifying God by an 
enduring ministry on earth and an unending service 
in heaven surely this is enough to meet the highest 
aspirations of the soul. Let not our thought of life 
be bounded by the narrow horizon of earth and time. 
It reaches farther beyond time to eternity, beyond 
earth to heaven, beyond man to God. There is no 
limit that can be set to the power of an endless life. 



50 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

The Kingdom of God on earth is built up by the 
labors of men and women like ourselves. The world 
shall be what we have made it under God. And 
when the mighty web of history has been woven to 
completion, God shall trace in it the thread of each 
individual life. Not one who has wrought in the 
service of the Kingdom shall fail of his reward. 
And not earth alone but heaven shall be the richer 
by reason of our lives. In the great chorus of praise 
that rises unceasingly before the throne of the Lamb 
voices bear a part that we have taught to sing. 
Amid the innumerable host that throng the golden 
streets there are. those whom we were permitted by 
God's grace to lead through the gates of pearl. In 
the crown of the great Redeemer are jewels that our 
hands have set there. How many in the Church 
below, how many in the Church above, will testify, 
It was the word, the example, the life of parent or 
teacher or pastor or friend that led me to the Sav- 
iour? Every true servant of God makes earth better 
and heaven brighter by his life. Living or dying, he 
is the Lord's, and while he lives and after his eyes 
are closed in death God shall work through him his 
holy will. 

To each one of us is granted a twofold immortal- 
ity, an immortality of influence on earth, an immor- 
tality of life in heaven. While the soul of Elisha 
rejoiced in presence of his God, his body wrought 
wonders among men. That is the figure of a uni- 
versal and eternal truth. We shall live there with 
God, we shall live here with men. So live as they 
should live who live forever. 



THE DIVIDED WATERS 51 

IV 

THE DIVIDED WATERS 

" And it came to pass, . . . when they that bare the 
ark were come unto the Jordan, and the feet of the priests 
that bare the ark were dipped in the brink of the water 
(for the Jordan overfloweth all its banks all the time of 
harvest), that the waters which came down from above 
stood, and rose up in one heap, a great way off, at Adam, 
the city that is beside Zarethan; and those that went down 
toward the sea of the Arabah, even the Salt Sea, were 
wholly cut off: and the people passed over right against 
Jericho." 

Josh. 3:14-16 

After forty years of wandering in the wilderness, 
the children of Israel have come to the border of the 
Land of Promise. But before them rolls a river 
deep and wide. Under ordinary conditions the 
Jordan is not a formidable stream ; but in the spring- 
time when it is swollen by the melting snows of 
Mount Hermon, it overflows its banks, and becomes 
a raging torrent, rushing in mad haste to the Dead 
Sea. The fords are impassable ; there are no boats, 
no bridges. The strongest swimmer might well fear 
to venture into that angry flood. How then shall 
this great host be transported to the other side, this 
army of men with women and children and flocks 
and herds? It was a task beyond the power of man 
to perform. God took it in hand. He has not deliv- 
ered them from the bondage of Egypt, and preserved 
them amid the perils of the desert, to forsake them 
now. He bids Joshua marshal the people in long 
procession, the priests with the ark of God going 



52 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

before them. And the promise is given, " When the 
soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of 
Jehovah, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the 
waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan 
shall be cut off, even the waters that come down 
from above ; and they shall stand in one heap." The 
ranks are formed in obedience to the divine com- 
mand, the word is given, and the mighty host begins 
to wend its way toward the rushing river. As they 
draw near doubts and fears arise in their hearts. 
The Jordan rolls its turbid flood between them and 
the land of Canaan. The fury of the waters shows 
no sign of abatement. But the priests lead on. 
They have almost reached the brink of the river, and 
still there is no divine interposition. Still the waters 
rush madly to the sea. Then their feet touch the 
water, and in a moment the miracle is wrought, the 
torrent is stayed. God calls, Halt. He speaks not 
to the people, but to the waters, and the waters hear 
and obey. In a moment a path is opened through 
the flood, and the people pass over right against 
Jericho. We need not stop to inquire whether this 
arrest of the waters was due to natural causes. Are 
not the laws and forces of nature in the hand of God? 
Are they not the expression of his purpose and the 
servants of his will? Whatever may have been the 
immediate cause, it was by the hand of God that the 
waters above were dammed up, while the waters 
below roll swiftly on, leaving a broad pathway by 
which the great host journey in safety to the Prom- 
ised Land. 



THE DIVIDED WATERS 53 

Let us fix our thoughts upon a single feature of 
the story, the time of the miracle. When the feet of 
the priests touch the waters the flood is divided, not 
before. Here is another instance of that divine 
economy to which many of the miracles bear wit- 
ness. When Jesus fed the five thousand, he bade 
his disciples gather up the fragments that nothing 
should be lost. Here God does not interfere until 
the decisive moment. He will not interrupt the 
course of nature an instant sooner or an instant 
longer than the necessity of the case requires. The 
waters are divided at the last possible moment, and 
as soon as the people have crossed over the stream 
it returns to its accustomed channel. There is a 
divine parsimony even in the working of miracles. 
God interposes not to supersede but to supplement 
the activity of men. They must do what they can. 
He will do for them no more than is necessary. The 
miracle is bounded by their ability. He will do for 
us by direct interposition only what we cannot do 
ourselves. 

The journey of Israel from Egypt to Canaan is 
often made the figure of the Christian life, the 
journey from the bondage of sin to the heavenly 
home. After recounting various features of the 
march of Israel through the wilderness, Paul says, 
" Now these things happened unto them by way of 
example ; and they were written for our admonition, 
upon whom the ends of the ages are come." I Cor. 
10:11. Every incident is significant. Every miracle 
has its lesson. This the Church has always recog- 



54 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

nized, and many of our most beautiful hymns draw 
their imagery and their inspiration from the record 
of these days : " Guide Me, O Thou Great Jeho- 
vah " ; " Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me " ; and our con- 
ceptions of death and the life beyond are shaped and 
colored by the Jordan River and the land of Canaan. 
Our thought of life and death and the world to come 
is largely determined by the story of these forty 
years, beginning with the Exodus and closing with 
the happy entrance into the land promised to their 
fathers. 

Miracles are signs, as John delights to call them. 
They are not merely wonders, that startle for the 
moment, meteors that flash out with sudden splen- 
dor and go out in darkness. A miracle is a sign, the 
outstretched finger of God pointing to some truth 
that may escape us in the ordinary course of his 
providence, and must be thrust upon us in some 
extraordinary way. The miracle has a value there- 
fore far beyond the relief of an immediate need. It 
conveys a truth of enduring importance. The 
miracle itself may minister to a passing necessity, 
the truth that the miracle enshrines ministers to the 
minds and hearts of every generation while time 
endures. 

What is the lesson which this story holds for us? 
God parts the waters when the feet of the priests 
touch the river, at the exact time. If we follow the 
ark of the covenant of our God, every hindrance 
shall be overcome, every difficulty surmounted, 



THE DIVIDED WATERS 55 

every barrier broken down. But only as we come 
face to face with them, not before. 

The truth branches out into a great variety of 
applications, for it is as broad as life itself, and 
touches every interest and relation. 

We may apply it to the cares and anxieties that 
beset us. It is not the troubles we bear but those 
we fear that wear us out. We can endure to-day, 
but we are afraid of to-morrow. Our fears are al- 
ways reaching forward and dragging to-morrow into 
to-day. We shudder at the thought of what may lie 
hidden in the mists that veil the future from our 
sight. Our fancies create our fears. Every man is 
strong enough for to-day, no man is strong enough 
for to-morrow. But as if the present task were not 
sufficient, we heap upon it regret for yesterday and 
anxiety for to-morrow, and go staggering on under 
the threefold burden. Upon many a tombstone this 
inscription might be written Died of trying to bear 
the burden of three days with the strength of one. 
It was said of a certain man after his death, that he 
had many troubles, but most of them never came. 
A friend of mine was taken with what threatened 
and proved to be a long and lingering illness. As 
he lay upon his bed, he asked his physician, 
"Doctor, how long must I lie here?" And the 
physician wisely replied, " Just one day at 'a time." 
It was a word fitly spoken, and my friend told me 
that it comforted and strengthened him in the long 
days of suffering that followed. 

We cannot cross the river until we come to it, and 



56 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

the waters are not divided until our feet touch the 
brink. Because we forget this, sometimes our pray- 
ers simply beat the air. We pray for strength to 
meet the burdens before they come. We ask to see 
the waters part when we are yet a great way off. 
We would feel strong enough to-day for the work of 
to-morrow. But God gives us strength as he gives 
us bread. He does not fill the storehouse and say, 
" Here is food enough for a year." Day by day he 
would have us seek from his hand our daily bread. 
There was a man who said, " I have much goods 
laid up for many years " ; but God called him a fool. 
Our bread, our life he gives us; and he says to us, 
" Wait upon me continually, and your wants shall be 
supplied as they arise." He will not give us strength 
for to-morrow until to-morrow comes, nor part the 
waters until we reach the shore. You may pray and 
groan and toss about all night upon your bed, but 
you will not have strength for to-morrow until to- 
morrow dawns. You cannot cross the river until 
you come to it, and not until you come to it will the 
waters divide. Let us go on as God leads, and trust 
him to open the way. We want to see the waters 
divide as soon as we come in sight of them, but that 
is not God's method. Go as far as you can, and God 
will lead you further. 

" Be not therefore anxious for the morrow : for 
the morrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient 
unto the day is the evil thereof." To-morrow will 
have its own anxieties; why anticipate them? Let 
each day be charged with the care of its own 



THE DIVIDED WATERS 57 

troubles. Between the days are set the hours of 
darkness and of rest. In sleep we roll off the bur- 
dens of to-day, and recruit our strength for the bur- 
dens of to-morrow. Let us not by our foolish fears 
break down the barrier that divides the days, and 
suffer the cares and anxieties of the future to rush 
in upon us like a flood. What lies before us we do 
not know, but whatever befalls us God is our 
Leader, and at his word of command the waters shall 
divide and the way shall be opened. 

We often shrink from the thought of duty. Some- 
times duty wears a forbidding face. Obligations are 
laid upon us that are distasteful. We shrink from 
them. We say, " I can never do it." We look for- 
ward days or weeks and the task looms up in huge 
proportions, as objects are magnified in a fog. We 
are burdened with the sense of duty that we feel we 
must do yet cannot do. We draw back, we are 
afraid. But if we are not to shirk and play the 
coward, there is only one course open to us. We 
must march up to the appointed task, however for- 
midable, however irksome it may appear, and lay 
hold on it and perform it. Often when we have 
mustered up our courage and come face to face with 
the dreaded task, we have found that the phantom of 
our fears was only a scarecrow. We are like chil- 
dren who shudder as they see ghosts in the dark- 
ness, terrible creatures with nodding heads and 
waving arms. But if they are bold enough to draw 
near, they find a cow placidly grazing in the 
meadow, or the family wash flapping on the line. 



58 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

Who has not been confronted with a duty from 
which he shrank with his whole heart, which he 
could scarcely bring himself to face, but when at 
length he marched up to it with fear and trembling 
he found it easy iand delightful? There is a picture 
that represents a storm cloud so vividly that as you 
look upon the dark and lowering skies it seems that 
the lightning is about to flash and the thunder to 
roll. But as you draw near the angry cloud is 
parted, and a company of angels smile upon you out 
of the darkness. 

Not always indeed is duty found to be a delight 
when we lay hold of it. Sometimes it remains hard 
and bitter. We must force ourselves to go through 
with it. We are tempted to leave it half done, so 
grievous is the burden. How then is the promise 
fulfilled? Where is the parting of the waters? This 
is true God will make the duty easier, or he will 
make you stronger. He will lighten the burden or 
strengthen the back. The waters will divide if you 
follow the ark of the covenant. You may trust God 
for that and go on. 

When temptation assails us, this promise is the 
anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast: " God is faith- 
ful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that 
ye are able ; but will with the temptation make also 
the way of escape, that ye may be able to endure it." 
I Cor. 10 :13. " With the temptation." The strength 
comes with the need. When -Satan tempts, God sus- 
tains. With the temptation comes the way of es- 
cape, " that ye may be able to endure it." The only 



THE DIVIDED WATERS 59 

way to escape temptation is to meet it and overcome 
it in the strength that God supplies. Whenever 
temptation lies athwart our path, God opens the way 
of escape. 

There are those who fear to enter upon the Chris- 
tian life, lest they should not be able to hold out to 
the end. Certainly they will not hold out if they 
never start. They say it is a very serious step to 
take. Yes, but it is more serious not to take it. 
They insist upon feeling strong enough for the 
whole journey before they take the first step. They 
must be charged with grace sufficient for all the way, 
like a storage battery, before they will set foot upon 
the road. But God does not give in that way. If 
you wait to be filled with strength for all the future 
before you begin the Christian life, you will wait 
forever. " As thy days, so shall thy strength be," is 
the promise. Day by day our strength is renewed 
and grace is given us like the manna in the wilder- 
ness, fresh every morning. Each day has its portion 
sufficient for the day. To-morrow shall bring its 
own supply. It is a long journey that lies before 
you. Strength is given step by step. Difficulties 
will be overcome as they meet you face to face. The 
waters of every river will divide as your feet touch 
them. Why not trust in God, and commit yourself 
to him, and go on as he leads? 

All our past experience testifies that this is God's 
way of dealing with us. He leads us step by step, 
moment by moment. He meets our needs, over- 
comes our hindrances, relieves our anxieties, con- 



60 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

quers our fears, as they confront us one by one. As 
each day has its appointed task, so it has its sufficient 
measure of grace. To-day alone is ours. To-morrow 
is in the hand of God. Let that suffice us. He ap- 
portions the duties, the cares, the temptations, the 
joys, the sorrows of each day as it comes to us, and 
gives us grace according to all our need. It is the 
part of wisdom to throw our strength into the duty 
of to-day, and trust him to care for to-morrow. 

There is one last river that we all must cross. It 
lies between us and the land of peace, our home. 
Often we shudder as we think of it. The stream is 
deep, the water is cold, the way is lonely, and it is 
shrouded in darkness. We do not pass through it 
like the children of Israel on the way to Canaan, a 
great army, marching shoulder to shoulder, cheering 
and encouraging one another as they march along. 
One by one we go down into the dark river, leaving 
our friends behind us on the shore. There are many 
to whom the thought of death is a haunting terror. 
The shadow of it broods over them continually, and 
they walk in the horror of great darkness. Some of 
the best Christians I have ever known " through 
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bond- 
age." And there are few, we may be sure, at least 
of those who reach maturity, who have not at times 
groaned beneath the bondage of this fear. It is not 
the pangs of death that we dread, the pains of dis- 
solution, but the darkness, the loneliness, the mys- 
tery of it makes us afraid. What lies beyond the 
veil we fear. Bunyan has painted the closing scenes 



THE DIVIDED WATERS 61 

of life with his accustomed power. Christian and 
Hopeful inquire if there is no other way to the Ce- 
lestial City than the way of the river. The river was 
very deep, and they were stunned .at the sight of it. 
They were told, " There is another way." " But 
there hath not any, save two, to wit, Enoch and 
Elijah, been permitted to tread that path since the 
foundation of the world, nor shall, until the last 
trumpet shall sound." Then they addressed them- 
selves to the water, and Christian beginning to sink 
cried out, " I sink in deep waters ; the billows go 
over my head ; all his waves go over me." Hopeful 
encourages him : " Be of good cheer, my brother : I 
feel the bottom, and it is good." But poor Christian 
is in deadly fear. " Ah, my friend, the sorrows of 
death have compassed me about ; I shall not see the 
land that flows with milk .and honey." And with 
that a great horror and darkness fell upon him. 
Hopeful cried, " Brother, I see the gate, and men 
standing to receive us " ; but Christian rejoins, " it 
is you, it is you they wait for." Then Christian fell 
into a muse, and Hopeful said, " Be of good cheer ; 
Jesus Christ maketh thee whole." Then the light 
broke in upon Christian, .and he cried with a loud 
voice, " Oh, I see him again ; and he tells me, When 
thou passeth through the waters I will be with thee ; 
and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee." 
Then they both took courage and soon they stood 
upon the farther shore. It is a vivid picture of the 
fears and the sorrows that beset us as we approach 
the river of death, and of the grace and comfort that 



62 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

are imparted to us as we pass through the dark 
waters to the heavenly home. The waters of this 
river too shall divide as our feet touch the brink. I 
have known many Christians who were afraid to 
die ; I have never known one who was afraid in the 
hour of death. While we live we have grace to live ; 
in the latest hour we shall have grace to die. But 
dying grace will not be given to us until we enter 
the dark river. 

" So I go on not knowing; 
I would not if I might; 
I would rather walk in the dark with God 
Than go alone in the light; 
I would rather walk with him by faith, 
Than walk alone by sight." 

Only let us be sure that we are following the ark 
of the covenant, that we are at peace with God, and 
seek to order our lives according to his will. Then 
all the promises are ours. 



THE INEVITABLE PAST 63 

V 
THE INEVITABLE PAST 

" God requireth that which is past." 

EccL 3:15 

All things move in circles, says the preacher. He 
observes that endless repetition is the law of nature 
and of life, motion without progress. The sun, the 
wind, the waters alike illustrate the truth. "The 
sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and 
hasteth to its place where it ariseth. The wind 
goeth toward the south, and turneth about toward 
the north ; it turneth about continually in its course, 
and the wind returneth again to its circuits. All the 
rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full ; unto 
the place whither the rivers go, thither they go 
again." Nature presents the spectacle of incessant 
toil, a weary Titan straining at impossible tasks. 
And the preacher sees here the figure of human life. 
Sun and wind and rivers have all one message. 
" All things are full of weariness ; man cannot utter 
it." Yet nature has this advantage over man, that 
it abides eternal. " One generation goeth, and an- 
other generation cometh ; but the earth abideth for 
ever." The earth in its steadfastness mocks the 
puny creature of an hour. The labor of to-day is re- 
peated to-morrow. " That which hath been is that 
which shall be; and that which hath been done is 
that which shall be done : and there is no new thing 



64 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

under the sun." There is no pause nor rest. " All 
things are full of weariness ; man cannot utter it." 

Emerson takes up the thought in his essay on 
Circles. " The eye is the first circle ; the horizon 
which it forms is the second ; and throughout nature 
this primary picture is repeated without end. It is 
the highest emblem in the cipher of the world." 

History repeats itself. The nations march in 
single file, each treading in the footsteps of its 
predecessors. Precedent, the guiding principle of 
statesmen and judges, what is it but the hand of the 
past shaping and directing the present? We con- 
stantly appeal to experience as our teacher. What 
is experience but the pa^t instructing the present? 
The old mystics carried the thought into the region 
of the infinite and the eternal, declaring that God is 
a circle, whose center is everywhere and whose cir- 
cumference is nowhere. 

There is no better commentary on many parts of 
Ecclesiastes, its moods and doubt and sensuality and 
cynicism, than the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. 
The thought of the circular movement of history is 
presented in a most striking and impressive way. 

With Earth's first Clay They did the last Man knead, 
And then of the Last Harvest sowed the Seed: 
And the First Morning of Creation wrote 
What the Last Dawn of Reckoning shall read. 

This law of nature and of history prevails no less 
in the individual life. Are we done with the past? 
Have we broken with it, throwing it aside as a worn- 



THE INEVITABLE PAST 65 

out garment? We cannot outgrow it, or escape it. 
We bear it with us continually, a burden that grows 
heavier with every step. 

" I looked behind to find my past, 
And lo, it had gone before." 

Here, too, God requireth that which is past. 

How does he require, recall, the past in our own 
experience? Or, as the Revised Version renders it, 
" Seek again that which is passed away?" 

(1) In memory. A marvelous faculty is memory, 
a storehouse that is never full. Here, too, man re- 
flects the image of the infinite God. No limit can be 
set to its capacity. Cardinal Mezzofanti, an Italian 
of the last century, whom Byron pronounced " a 
monster of languages," is said to have been familiar 
with more than fifty, though it is not recorded, I 
believe, that he ever said anything remarkable in any 
of them. And history records the names of many 
men whose feats of memory would be incredible if 
they were not thoroughly attested. 

It is the faculty that binds together our varied 
experiences and gives to life its unity. Without it 
the days and hours would each be isolated and dis- 
tinct, having no conscious relation to one another; 
life would be a series of disconnected events and 
experiences ; and yesterday would have no meaning 
for to-day, to-day no link to attach it to to-morrow. 

It is a self-acting, automatic register, not of words 
and deeds alone, but of thoughts and feelings and 



66 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

sensations and emotions and impressions. What- 
ever touches the life at any point is recorded here. 
If you keep a diary you set down what you will, 
alter and omit at pleasure. The story of the day is 
shaped and colored to suit your desire. But in this 
register of memory all things, all thoughts, are re- 
corded exactly as they are, and we have no power to 
change the record in the least particular. Memory 
will extenuate nothing, nor set down aught in malice. 
The record answers precisely to the facts. 

It is generally believed by students of psychology 
that nothing which has been committed to the care 
of memory is ever lost. The difference between a 
good and a bad memory lies not in the power to 
retain but in the power to reproduce. One man's 
memory is like an attic full of lumber. Articles of 
every kind are thrown together without order or 
arrangement, and when there is need of a particular 
article it cannot be found. But it is there. Some- 
where, buried out of sight, it is there ; .and some day 
it will come to light. Another man's memory is like 
a library, indexed and catalogued, and at a moment's 
notice he can lay his hand upon whatever he needs. 
The attic keeps its deposit as safely as the library, 
but does not surrender it as readily. 

Memory records everything, retains everything. 
There are several reasons that lead us to this belief. 
Singular instances of the power of memory are re- 
corded. A servant girl, in a fit of delirium, was 
heard to repeat long passages of the Old Testament 
in the Hebrew. How had this woman gained a 



THE INEVITABLE PAST 67 

knowledge of that sacred tongue? Upon inquiry it 
was found that she had lived for a time in a home of 
a minister, a man of learning, who was accustomed 
to read aloud every day from the text of the Old 
Scripture. Those unintelligible sounds were caught 
up by the memory, treasured for years in some dim 
recess, and at length under the stimulus of fever 
were recalled and reproduced, as invisible ink leaps 
to life at the touch of fire. Our own experience 
furnishes examples of a similar if less striking sort. 
We often say,.! wonder what brought that back to 
me, I have not thought it before for years. A strain 
of music, a lock of hair, an article of dress, a chance 
encounter, may touch a spring that unlocks the se- 
cret chambers of memory, and the buried past again 
confronts us. 

Memory plays strange tricks in dreams. Sleep 
restores what our waking hours could not recall, and 
transports us in a moment to scenes that lie far be- 
hind us. We thought that we were rid of them, and 
in the dead of night they return to vex us, ghosts 
against which no exorcism will avail. 

Those who have come face to face with death, and 
have abandoned all hope of life, tell us that the 
whole of their past existence seemed to stand out 
before them, as a far stretching landscape is discov- 
ered by a flash of lightning. 

Memory records the past, retains the past, repro- 
duces the past. But beyond this it makes the past 
live again, gives it present reality and power. We 
not only recall the scenes and incidents of days gone 



68 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

by, we taste again the sorrows and the joys associ- 
ated with them. Memory calls to life sensations and 
emotions with the events from which they sprang. 
We do not merely recall the past in thought, we live 
it over again. The heart has its place in memory as 
well as the understanding ; we see, we feel. Memory 
brings a frown to the brow, a blush to the cheek, a 
tear to the eye, grief or pleasure to the heart. Spend 
an hour alone with memory, let your thoughts play 
freely upon the past, and you will run through the 
whole range of the emotions. 

To those who have grown old, memory is often the 
only real world. The days of childhood are nearer to 
them than the life of to-day. The world about them 
is unreal, spectral, phantasmal, a realm of shadows. 
The world in which they live is a world that has long 
been dead, peopled by those whose bones have long 
since moldered to dust. Only the dead are living, 
and the living are dead. The present is a dream, 
only the past preserved in memory is substantial and 
enduring. 

Memory plays therefore a leading part in the pains 
and pleasures of life. It is the only paradise, says 
Richter, from which we can never be turned out. It 
is memory that gives to conscience its power. 
Hawthorne has pictured this truth in his Fancy's 
Showbox. As memory turns the pages of her record, 
conscience smites the sinner to the heart. There are 
men who would rather endure the last extremity of 
physical torment than have memory let loose upon 
them. 



THE INEVITABLE PAST 69 

Memory spans the grave, and binds together this 
life and the life beyond. We bear our past with us 
into eternity. '* Son, remember," was the word of 
Abraham to the careless rich man who in hades 
lifted up his eyes, being in torments. And how large 
a place is held by the memories of the past in the 
bliss of the redeemed. They sing the song of Moses 
and the Lamb, the song that commemorates the de- 
liverances of the earthly life. Amid the glories of 
heaven their thoughts go back to earth, and they 
chant the praises of the Lamb that was slain, who 
loved us and gave himself for us, and loosed us from 
our sins by his blood. The saints above draw their 
noblest inspiration, their loudest and sweetest songs 
from the memory of the grace that redeemed them. 
In presence of the throne they can never forget the 
cross. The memories of earth kindle the joys of 
heaven. It is the crucified Redeemer whom they 
ever love and serve and adore. The new song is in- 
spired by the memories of Calvary: "Thou wast 
slain, and didst purchase unto God with thy blood 
men of every tribe and tongue and people and 
nation." 

(2) God requires the past, recalls it, brings it back, 
in character. 

Life is one. The days and hours are closely knit 
together. The past is interwoven with the very fiber 
of our being. We do not leave it behind, we bear it 
with us in body and spirit. It is part of us. We say 
that memory loses nothing; it is no less true that life 
loses nothing. Nothing is lost, all is taken up into 



70 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

the complex fabric of life. Every event, every ex- 
perience, every sensation, thought, emotion, passion, 
purpose, ambition, everything that touches us on any 
side, is one of the threads with which this intricate 
web of life is woven. Each has its place, and not one 
is left out. The web grows steadily and rapidly upon 
the loom of time. 

What is habit but the past persisting, repeating it- 
self, asserting itself, in the present? What is char- 
acter but the result of past experiences, the stamp 
which they have impressed upon the spirit? What 
have we that is not the accumulation of the past? 
What are we that the past has not made us? Bad 
habits are the fetters with which the past has bound 
the present. Many a man spends the days of his 
youth and strength in forging fetters that shall bind 
him hand and foot in his later years. 

But we must observe further that the present does 
not simply repeat the past, else there would be no 
progress ; it repeats it with emphasis. To-day is not 
merely yesterday, it is a greater yesterday ; and to- 
morrow shall be as to-day, but yet more abundant. 
Habit grows stronger, the ruts wear deeper. We do 
not simply repeat, we repeat with power. We do the 
same work, but we do it differently. We are not 
precisely the same in character, in wisdom, in 
strength, in virtue to-day that we were yesterday. 
We are good or bad to-day, we shall be better or 
worse to-morrow. We are wise or foolish to-day, we 
shall be wiser or more foolish to-morrow. No day 
leaves us just as it finds us. Something we have 



THE INEVITABLE PAST 71 

gained or lost. We have gone forward or backward, 
for we cannot stand still. Life gathers momentum 
as it goes, and moves with accelerated speed because 
it has the impulse of an ever growing past behind it. 

The true figure of life then is not the circle, which 
ever returns upon itself, but the spiral, which ever 
returns upon itself indeed, but never reaches the 
point from which it started, rising or falling with 
each successive revolution, so that with every turn 
it reaches a higher or lower plane. However similar 
our days may seem to be, each is upon a higher or 
lower level than the days that have gone before. 
Though the task be the same the hand has gained or 
lost in cunning, and the spirit in fidelity. There is 
never a moment's halt in the eternal march of the 
soul. 

(3) God requires the past in judgment. " God will 
bring every work into judgment, with every hidden 
thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." 

In the picture of the last judgment in the twen- 
tieth chapter of the Apocalypse, John tells us that 
he saw " the dead, the great and the small, standing 
before the throne; and books were opened: and an- 
other book was opened, which is the book of life: and 
the dead were judged out of the things which were 
written in the books, according to their works." 
What are these books? We do not think, of course, 
of records inscribed on paper or parchment. The 
only record required is memory, in which all the 
thoughts and deeds of life are registered. Every 
man must say with Pilate, " What I have written, I 



72 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

have written." He must bear witness for or against 
himself. Out of our own mouth shall we be judged. 

" There is no shuffling, there the action lies 
In his true nature; and we ourselves compelled 
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults, 
To give in evidence." 

As the finger of God turns the pages of memory, 
conscience pronounces sentence. Memory is our ac- 
cuser, conscience is our judge. Woe to him in that 
day, who has no Saviour! 

Besides these books which are the memories of 
men, there is another, the book of life, which is the 
memory of God. It is a familiar conception. Moses 
prayed, " Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and 
have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt 
forgive their sin ; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, 
out of thy book which thou hast written." Ex. 
32 : 31, 32. And Malachi uses the same figure. 
" Then they that feared Jehovah spake one with an- 
other; and Jehovah hearkened, and heard, and a book 
of remembrance was written before him, for them 
that feared Jehovah, and that thought upon his 
name." Mai. 3 : 16. The book of life is God's re- 
membrance of his people. " Can a woman forget her 
sucking child, that she should not have compassion 
on the son of her womb ? Yea, these may forget, yet 
will not I forget thee," is God's word to all them that 
put their trust in him. 

The story of every man's life is written twice, 
upon the pages of his own memory and of the mem- 



THE INEVITABLE PAST 73 

ory of God. The books are compared and judgment 
is given. The earthly life determines the eternal 
state. " We must all be made manifest before the 
judgment-seat of Christ; that each one may receive 
the things done in the body, according to what he 
hath done, whether it be good or bad." II Cor. 5 : 10. 
The buried past shall be raised to life again, and 
shall confront us at the judgment bar of God. 

Thus God requires, recalls, the past in memory, 
in character, in judgment. We bear it with us for- 
ever in this life and the life to come. It follows us 
like a shadow, it haunts us like a ghost. It fashions 
the present, shapes the future, and molds the issues 
of eternity. 

What then? 

The present is moment by moment becoming the 
past. The golden hours are falling rapidly into the 
dark backward and abysm of time. We have no 
time but the present instant that even while we 
speak of it is gone. Each moment as it speeds by 
is a swift messenger that bears to heaven its record. 
The selfish thought, the unhallowed passion, the 
careless word, the unkind act ; the kindly deed, the 
holy impulse, the gracious purpose all these have 
been borne on the swift wings of the flying moments 
to God, the Judge of all, and are written in his book 
of remembrance. " Redeem the time," fill the 
passing hours with words and deeds that shall bear 
the scrutiny of heaven, that shall abide the judgment 
of the great Day, that the last account may be ren- 
dered with joy and not with grief. Look carefully 



74 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

how you walk, lest memory breed remorse. Let the 
life that now is lay up heavenly treasure for the life 
to come. If the past is gone beyond recall, the pres- 
ent is ours, and with the help of God we may make 
it better than the past has been. 

But no matter how diligently we may improve the 
present, how high we may lift it above the past, none 
the less the past remains, dark and menacing. We 
bear it with us here, we shall meet it again before the 
great white throne. What shall we do with it? 
How shall we escape the condemnation with which 
it threatens us? Bring it to God and ask him to for- 
give it. There is no other way of escape. 

"The Moving Finger writes; and having writ 
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit 
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, 
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it." 

That is true, terribly true. But blessed be God, 
there is a power as far above our piety and wit and 
tears as the heavens are higher than the earth. It is 
the grace of God revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. 
How many and gracious are the promises given to 
the penitent soul. "I, even I, am he that blotteth out 
thy transgressions for mine own sake ; and I will not 
remember thy sins." " I have blotted out, as a thick 
cloud, thy transgressions." "As far as the east is 
from the west, so far hath he removed our trans- 
gressions from us." " I will be merciful to their in- 
iquities, and their sins will I remember no more." 



THE INEVITABLE PAST 75 

" The blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all 
sin." 

God requires, shall ever require, the past, but to 
him who puts his trust in the atoning sacrifice of 
Calvary, he requires only to forgive. 



76 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

VI 
THE CONSUMING FIRE 

" Our God is a consuming fire." 

Heb. 12:29 

This is given as the reason that we should seek 
for grace to serve God with reverence and awe. The 
verse is sometimes amended to read, " God out of 
Christ is a consuming fire." But amendments to the 
Word of God are not in order. It is our God, the 
God of the New Testament, who is a consuming fire. 
What God was, he is forever. The difference be- 
tween the God of the old covenant and the new is not 
in character but in revelation. He is the same God, 
but we know him better. God out of Christ, God in 
Christ, is a consuming fire. 

There were heretics in the early church who dis- 
tinguished sharply between the God of the Old 
Testament and the God of the New. One is a cruel 
and malign despot, the other is a kind and merciful 
Father. A similar distinction, though it does not 
run to the same extreme, is often drawn to-day. We 
fancy that some change was wrought in the nature, 
the disposition of God by the life and death of Christ. 
God learned to love on Calvary. The sternness and 
hardness of his heart have been softened by the 
suffering and mediation of his Son. But no change 
has taken place in him. He has simply revealed him- 
self more clearly, has made known to us more fully 
the grace which has always dwelt within his heart. 



THE CONSUMING FIRE 77 

Broadly speaking the Old Testament portrays 
God's hatred of sin, the New Testament portrays 
God's love of the sinner. Yet both his love and his 
hate appear alike in the old covenant and the new. 
The Old Testament magnifies the law, displays the 
justice of God; yet the promise of a. Saviour was 
given in the very hour of man's first sin. And the 
earlier Scripture abounds in gracious invitations and 
promises that anticipate the most tender and loving 
words of the Son of Man. " Like as a father pitieth 
his children, so Jehovah pitieth them that fear him." 
" Jehovah is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, 
and abundant in lovingkindness." " Though your 
sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; 
though they be red like crimson, they shall be as 
wool." " Let the wicked forsake his way, and the 
unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return 
unto Jehovah, .and he will have mercy upon him ; 
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." It 
is the God of the Old Testament who speaks, the 
God of Sinai. Then too his nature and his name was 
love. God does not love men because Jesus died for 
them ; Jesus died for men because God loved them. 
Because he loved the world, he gave his Son. 

The New Testament magnifies the love, displays 
the grace of God ; yet the God of the New Testament 
too is a consuming fire. The roll of Sinai's thunder 
is the deep undertone of the gospel. If there were 
no Sinai with its broken law there would be no need 
of Calvary with its atoning blood. Love and hate 
are twin passions in the Breast of God. God is re- 



78 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

vealed in Christ, and Christ is always walking the 
earth in mercy and in judgment. Because of the 
double nature of his mission he speaks in paradoxes, 
seems to contradict himself. He said, " I came not 
to judge the world"; and again, "For judgment 
came I into this world." The name he bears is 
Prince of peace, yet he warned his disciples, " Think 
not that I came to send peace on the earth : I came 
not to send peace, but a sword." What an incon- 
gruous figure is this, the Prince of peace coming 
into the world with sword in hand ! We must dis- 
tinguish between the ultimate purpose and the im- 
mediate effect of his coming; the ultimate purpose 
is peace, the immediate effect is division, strife. He 
came to turn the heart of the fathers to the children, 
and the heart of the children to their fathers ; but the 
immediate effect of his coming was " to set a man at 
variance against his father, and the daughter against 
her mother, and the daughter in law against her 
mother in law : and a man's foes shall be they of his 
own household," a prophecy which is fulfilled in 
every heathen land to-day. He came to bring Jew 
and Gentile together, breaking down the wall of 
partition between them, so making peace. But the 
immediate effect of his coming was to exasperate the 
Jew, to kindle afresh the fires of hatred in his breast, 
so that the Church must leave the fold of Judaism 
before it could bid welcome to the Gentiles. He 
came to make peace between man and God ; but the 
immediate effect of his coming was to drive men to 
that extremity of sin which nailed the Son of God to 



THE CONSUMING FIRE 79 

the cross. When he spoke to his disciples of the 
sword, he announced a principle of universal applica- 
tion. Peace is won only through conflict. It is the 
reward of victory. " He shall bruise thy head, and 
thou shalt bruise his heel." The crown is gained by 
the cross. There is no other way. 

Fire plays a large part in the ministry of Jesus. 
So Malachi foretold. " But who can abide the day of 
his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? 
for he is like a refiner's fire." So John the Baptist 
declared, " I indeed baptize you in water unto re- 
pentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier 
than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he 
shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in fire: 
whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly 
cleanse his threshing-floor; and he will gather his 
wheat into the garner, but the chaff he will burn up 
with unquenchable fire." And Jesus himself said to 
his disciples, " I came to cast fire upon the earth," 
and declared that everyone shall be " salted with 
fire." Every man shall be put to the test of fire, 
which shall either purify or destroy. When John 
saw the risen and exalted Christ in the vision on 
Patmos, his eyes were as a flame of fire. And when 
he comes again in the glory of his Father with the 
holy angels, he shall be revealed " in flaming fire, 
rendering vengeance to them that know not God." 
II Thess. 1 :7. 

The most terrible pictures of judgment are not 
painted by the lawgiver or the prophets of the Old 
Testament, by Moses or David or Isaiah; but by 



80 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

Paul and John, and above all by the Lord Jesus. 
That is a tremendous phrase which John puts in the 
mouth of sinners as the terrors of divine judgment 
overwhelm them. They call to the mountains and 
to the rocks, " Fall on us, and hide us from the face 
of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath 
of the Lamb," the wrath of outraged and rejected 
love, the anger of a wounded heart. The Saviour is 
the Judge. He who with outstretched arms and in- 
finite compassion in the days of his flesh and now 
by his Spirit beseeches men to turn to him and live, 
saying, " Come unto me, all ye that labor and are 
heavy laden, and I will give you rest " ; he it is who 
shall say in the Day of Judgment to them upon his 
left hand, " Depart from me, ye cursed, into the 
eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his 
angels." 

God has given us fair warning. He has thundered 
his law in our ears. He has stamped his hatred 
of sin upon a guilty race. He has written it in let- 
ters of blood on Calvary. He has provided a way of 
deliverance at infinite cost. If a man persist in sin 
after the threatenings of the law and the invitations 
of the gospel his blood shall be upon his own head. 
" It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the 
living God." That, too, is a word from the New 
Testament, and from this same epistle. 

This may seem a hard and cruel representation of 
the divine nature. But the important question for us 
to determine is whether it is true. Our great con- 
cern is to know God .as he is, not as we might prefer 



THE CONSUMING FIRE 81 

to have him. Lord Bacon tells us that " the human 
understanding is no dry light, but receives an infu- 
sion from the will and affections; whence proceed 
sciences which may be called ' sciences as one 
would.' For what a man had rather were true he 
more readily believes." These are sciences built not 
of facts but of fancies, and shaped at pleasure. 
There is religion, too, of this kind, religion fashioned 
by our desires, religion as one would. There are 
those who conceive of God as an easy-going old 
grandfather, who looks down with an indulgent eye 
upon the faults and failings of men ; lets them do as 
they please, and will somehow make it all right in 
the end. This thought of God is in part the cause 
and in part the effect of the careless, self-indulgent 
lives that many lead. ^Where is this God of our 
dreams? The Scripture saith, He is not in me; and 
history saith, He is not in me ; and providence saith, 
He is not in me ; and experience saith, He is not in 
me. There is no place in all the wide universe where 
he may be found. There is no such God. He is a 
figment of the imagination, nothing more. The God 
of Scripture, history, providence, experience, is the 
God who is a consuming fire. The God with whom 
we have to do is the God in whose breast flames and 
burns a hatred of sin that shall never rest until sin 
has been destroyed. 

But there is another aspect of the truth that may 
serve to relieve the seeming harshness of the repre- 
sentation, and even turn the clouds of wrath to glory. 
In this consuming hatred of sin that burns in the 



82 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

breast of God lies our only hope of redemption, of 
the triumph of righteousness among men. If there 
were no hatred of sin in the heart of God there 
would be no salvation for the sinner. It is this alone 
which hinders sin from extending its sway over all 
the earth, and making of the universe a hell. 

Look at the individual life. When a man purposes 
to forsake sin and turn to righteousness, he soon 
discovers that he has undertaken a task beyond his 
strength. He is bound by fetters of habit that he 
cannot break. Passions and appetites are clamorous. 
Old associations assert their power. Familiar sins 
keep tugging at his heartstrings. He feels his weak- 
ness. He must either abandon the struggle in 
despair or seek a strength beyond his own. He 
looks to God. But what reason has he to believe that 
God will help him? Why should God be interested 
in the struggles of this puny creature, like an insect 
caught in the mighty web of sin? Why should God 
trouble himself about the matter? Why should he 
not rather let the sinner fight it out alone? This is 
the ground on which he may hope that God will 
come to his help and this alone : " Our God is a con- 
suming fire." If God were indifferent to sin, or care- 
less, or neutral, the case would be beyond hope and 
beyond remedy. But when he cries, " O God, I hate 
my sin," God answers, " I hate it infinitely more." 
And when he cries, " O God, I long for righteous- 
ness," God answers, " I long for it infinitely more." 

Wherever in all the wide world a man is battling 
with lust and appetite and temper and greed and 



THE CONSUMING FIRE 83 

selfishness God is with him, and will strengthen him 
with all the resources of omnipotence. In this con- 
suming passion for righteousness in the heart of 
God, flaming out against all manner of sin, he finds 
his only hope. God will turn upon him that burning 
flame until his sin shall be consumed, his soul puri- 
fied, and he shall be made meet for the inheritance 
of the saints in light, in the home whither no sin 
may come. Every man who takes his place with 
the redeemed above shall praise God for the consum- 
ing fire that prepared him for that blest abode. 

Apply the truth to social and national life. Every 
man who seeks to help his fellow men in any effec- 
tive and enduring way is animated by a double mo- 
tive ; he loves them, he hates the sin that defiles and 
destroys them. The philanthropist, the reformer, 
the patriot cherishes a deep and burning hate side 
by side with a deep and burning love. No man has 
ever accomplished great things for God and for 
mankind unless there was in his heart a consuming 
fire kindled from the heart of God. If the disciple 
shall be as his Master he too must bear the sword 
and cast fire upon the earth. He must set himself 
inexorably against every form of sin, and wage 
against it a holy war that shall never end until fire 
and sword have wrought their work of destruction. 

But when a man proclaims war against supersti- 
tion, intemperance, licentiousness, war, any of the 
innumerable ills that afflict humanity, how can he 
hope for victory? These evils are deep rooted, in- 
veterate. He must contend against vested interests, 



84 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

established systems hoary with age and entrenched 
in the lust and appetite and greed and selfishness of 
men. Against such foes what may he hope to ac- 
complish? This is his confidence and this alone 
" Our God is a consuming fire." God hates sin not 
with a lukewarm, listless, languid dislike, but with 
all the burning energy of his infinitely holy nature. 
And he who with determined purpose arrays himself 
against any form of evil is assured that God hates it 
infinitely more than he does. He looks upon some 
giant system of evil which has long played the tyrant 
over men. He recognizes its enormous power, he 
knows that it will mock his puny strength. But he 
sees also that imposing and impregnable as it ap- 
pears, the curse of God is upon it and it shall wither 
and shrivel in the fires of the divine anger. God is 
turning against it the flames of his wrath and it shall 
be consumed. " The wrath of God is revealed from 
heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness 
of men." The fate that overtook Sodom and Go- 
morrah is a prophecy of the destruction that is re- 
served for every form of iniquity. 

If a man love sin, this is to him a thought of ter- 
ror our God is a consuming fire. It is the Master 
who tells us that those who choose sin for their por- 
tion and will not heed the warnings and entreaties 
of the gospel shall have their place in the unquench- 
able fire of divine judgment. To him who hates sin 
and seeks the Kingdom of God and his righteous- 
ness, it is a thought of strength and joy. God is wtih 
me in the battle against' sin in my own heart and in 



THE CONSUMING FIRE 85 

the world without, and because he hates it with a 
deep and burning hatred that can never rest until it 
is consumed, victory is assured. 

If we are the children of God we must learn to 
hate sin as he hates it, to love righteousness as he 
loves it, to throw ourselves into the battle of right- 
eousness against sin with all the ardor of a heart in 
which Christ dwells by faith, with <all the energy of 
a soul quickened and strengthened by the Holy 
Spirit, with something of the flaming wrath that 
burns unquenchably in the breast of the Almighty. 
Then we shall have part in the ministry of our 
Master, shall serve the eternal purpose of God, shall 
have a part in the conflict, the victory, the reward. 
When the flames have done their work from the 
mighty conflagration shall come forth new heavens 
and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. 

Let us rejoice in God who is a Saviour because he 
is a consuming fire, and let us give ourselves to the 
service of the Kingdom, which is first righteousness, 
then peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Righteous- 
ness must be established before peace and joy can 
prevail. It is ours to-day to wage the war of right- 
eousness that the blessings of the Kingdom may 
be won. 

" He hath sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call 

retreat; 

He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment- 
seat: 

O be swift, my soul, to answer him! be jubilant, my feet! 
Our God is marching on." 



86 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

VII 
THE RISEN CHRIST 

" If Christ be not risen." 

I Cor. 15:14 

There were those in Corinth who denied the 
doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. Probably 
they believed in the immortality of the soul, but held 
that the body should perish, regarding it as a prison 
from which the spirit should be delivered by death, 
a fleshly vesture suited to the present life, but 
having no place in the life beyond. Paul declares 
that to deny the resurrection of the dead, the raising 
of the body from the grave, in altered form indeed 
but with identity preserved, is to deny the resurrec- 
tion of Christ. " If the dead are not raised, neither 
has Christ been raised." He was a real man, having 
a true body and a reasonable soul. He submitted to 
the conditions of our mortal life, yielded to the 
power of death, was laid in the tomb, that in all 
things he might be made like unto his brethren. To 
deny the resurrection of men is to deny his resur- 
rection, for he too was a man. And that in Paul's 
view is to sweep away the very foundation of 
Christian faith. 

So vital is the truth of the resurrection of Christ 
that he proceeds to establish it by an elaborate argu- 
ment. He does not reason from the universal to the 
particular, seeking to establish the doctrine by con- 
siderations of a general nature, and then applying it 



THE RISEN CHRIST 87 

to Christ. But he reasons from the particular case 
to the universal truth, setting forth the proof that 
Christ rose again, and then showing that the resur- 
rection of mankind is bound up with his. That he 
rose again is the foundation of the doctrine of the 
resurrection. Why may we believe that men shall 
rise again? Because this man has actually risen, this 
man, the Son of Man, who gathers up in his own 
person the interests and destiny of mankind. How 
can it be said that there is no resurrection of the 
dead, when in fact Christ has risen? 

As the doctrine rests upon the fact of Christ's 
resurrection, Paul marshals the evidence for the fact 
with convincing power. Three lines of argument 
are followed. 

(1) He reminds them that the resurrection as well 
as the death of Christ was predicted in the Scripture. 
" I delivered unto you first of all that which I also 
received ; that Christ died for our sins according to 
the scriptures ; and that he was buried ; and that he 
hath been raised on the third day according to the 
scriptures." This is the earliest creed of the Chris- 
tian Church. The Corinthians accepted the Old 
Testament as the word of God. How then could 
they deny that resurrection which the Old Testa- 
ment clearly foretold? Why should it be thought a 
thing incredible with them that God should raise the 
dead, when he had declared by the mouth of his 
prophets that the Christ should rise again? On the 
Day of Pentecost Peter appealed to the Sixteenth 
Psalm. David exclaimed, " Thou wilt not leave my 



88 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

soul unto sheol; neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy 
One to see corruption." Evidently David did not 
speak of himself, for his body had long since mold- 
ered to dust ; but he " spake of the resurrection of the 
Christ, that neither was he left unto Hades, nor did 
his flesh see corruption.'* His death and resurrec- 
tion are the firm pillars on which our faith rests, and 
both the death and the resurrection were foretold. 
If we trust the prophecy, we must accept the fact. 
As God is true, if Jesus was the Christ, as we 
all believe, he must have risen from the dead; for 
the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. The argu- 
ment is absolutely conclusive for those who accept 
the Old Testament as the word of God, and Jesus as 
the Christ. 

(2) He appeals to those who saw him after he rose 
from the dead, and summons an imposing array of 
witnesses. On the day of his resurrection he ap- 
peared to Peter, then to the Twelve. Then he ap- 
peared to above five hundred brethren at once, most 
of whom were still living ; then to James ; to all the 
apostles ; and last of all to Paul himself. These were 
honest men; they had known Christ during his 
earthly life. Some of them were his intimate friends. 
They were not looking for his resurrection, but had 
abandoned all hope of seeing him again ; and could 
hardly believe the evidence of their senses when he 
appeared to them. They had abundant opportunity 
to satisfy themselves that it was really their Master 
whom they saw, and not a mere hallucination, the 
offspring of a heated fancy. At least ten times he 



THE RISEN CHRIST 89 

showed himself to some of them in visible form. He 
resumed his familiar intercourse with them. They 
walked and talked and ate and drank together. 
They had nothing to gain by declaring that they had 
seen him unless it was true. Their witness to the 
resurrection drew down upon them the hatred of the 
Jews and the mockery of the Greeks ; but in face of 
persecution and of death they maintained that they 
had seen him. They were thoroughly persuaded 
that he had risen and appeared to them, and devoted 
their lives to preaching Jesus and the resurrection; 
and some of them sealed their testimony with their 
blood. If anything may be established by human 
witness, the resurrection of Christ is established be- 
yond a doubt. 

(3) The third line of truth is what the logicians 
call the reductio ad absurdum. It consists in assum- 
ing a proposition, .and showing that the conse- 
quences which follow from it are absurd. Then it is 
plain that the proposition is itself absurd. If the 
conclusions are preposterous, the premises are false. 
This method is constantly employed in mathematics, 
in philosophy, in our common speech. If it is 
properly used, no mode of argument has more con- 
vincing and overwhelming power. If it can be 
shown that the inferences are properly drawn, there 
is no possible answer. 

This is Paul's argument : You deny the resurrec- 
tion of the dead, that involves the denial of the 
resurrection of Christ. Now see to what that leads. 
If Christ be not risen, 



90 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

(a) Our preaching is vain. Ours is a historical 
religion. It rests upon two great facts, the death 
and resurrection of Christ. They form the burden 
of our message, the substance of our preaching. If 
either is denied the whole structure of gospel teach- 
ing falls. The Old Testament predicted that the 
Christ should die and rise again. If Jesus did not 
rise again, he is not the Christ. He himself declared 
again and again that he should be put to death and 
the third day should rise again. If he did not rise 
he is a false prophet, deceiver or deceived. Jesus 
and the resurrection form the theme of our preach- 
ing ; but if he did not rise again we preach not facts 
but fancies, not truth but a lie. This message that 
has turned the world upside down and is drawing 
the hearts of men to the Kingdom of God with ever- 
growing power is an idle dream, a baseless fancy, a 
deliberate deceit. The word of the Scripture, which 
is the word of God, of Jesus himself, of his apostles, 
is false, all false, if he be not risen. Our preaching 
is vain, empty, has no substance, no reality, no fact 
that answers to the word. Instead of words of truth 
and soberness we speak great swelling words of 
vanity, words that promise much and yield nothing. 
The gospel as we have declared it unto you is a mis- 
take, a delusion, a falsehood. This service to which 
we have consecrated our lives, putting them in daily 
peril, is nothing but a beating of the air. 

If Christ be not risen, 

(fc) Your faith is vain. Your faith rests upon our 
preaching. You know Christ only through our wit- 



THE RISEN CHRIST 91 

ness. We have seen him, we know him, we have 
made him known to you. We have told you the 
story of his life, his death, his resurrection, and 
you received our message as the word of God. If 
our preaching is vain, a mere show of empty words, 
your faith that is built upon our preaching is also 
vain. It has no foundation, lays hold upon no real- 
ity. You have put your faith in an illusion. Your 
faith is built upon the sand, your hope has laid hold 
upon a lie. The gospel is simply the latest and most 
cruel of the illusions that have mocked the longings 
and broken the hearts of men. You have sur- 
rendered all to him, yielded yourselves to him with- 
out reserve, rejoicing in the hope of eternal life ; and 
this faith of yours upon which you have ventured all 
proves to be only a baseless dream. You are grasp- 
ing at shadows, trusting to words which are no more 
than empty breath. 

If Christ be not risen, 

(c) We are found false witnesses of God ; " be- 
cause we witnessed of God that he raised up Christ : 
whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead are not 
raised." We have affirmed, we continually affirm, it 
is the burden of our message, that we saw him after 
he rose from the dead. We declare that we do not 
follow cunningly devised fables, nor do we appeal to 
the witness of others. We say that we saw him our- 
selves, with our own eyes we saw him. Call the 
witnesses, and let them spea>k for themselves. 
"Peter, did you see him?" "Yes, the day he rose 
from the dead he came to me though I had denied 



92 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

him. And again at the Sea of Galilee he cut me to 
the heart with the question, ' Simon, son of John, 
lovest thou me?" 1 "James, John, Andrew, Philip, 
Nathanael, did you see him?" " Yes, he came to us 
the very day he rose from the dead and said, ' Peace 
be unto you.' And we were afraid, thinking that it 
was a spirit. But he told us to look and handle him 
and see that it was he himself. Then he breathed 
upon us the gift of the Holy Spirit." " Thomas, did 
you see him ?" " Yes. That first night I was not 
with them. I had lost faith and hope, and went off 
to muse and grieve alone. But they sought me out 
and found me, and told me that they had seen the 
Lord. But I smiled at their folly, and said that I 
would not be so easily deceived. Nothing would 
satisfy me but to see in his hands the print of the 
nails, and put my hand into his side where the spear 
had opened the way. So I spoke in my blindness. 
And a week later he came. He offered me the proof 
that I had asked, but I saw .him, and I asked no 
more. I fell at his feet with the adoring cry, ' My 
Lord and my God.' " " You who are still living of 
the five hundred brethren, did you see him?" " Yes, 
on a mountain, where we were gathered together we 
saw him. So incredible was the sight that some of 
us doubted at first, but soon we all believed and 
worshiped." "James, did you see him?" "Yes, 
while he lived I could not believe that he, my own 
brother, was the Christ. But when I saw him risen 
from the dead, I could doubt no longer." " Paul, did 
you see him?" "Yes, he appeared to me as I was 



THE RISEN CHRIST 93 

journeying to Damascus, to persecute his followers. 
The moment I saw him and heard his voice, I recog- 
nized the promised Messiah, and owned him my 
Lord." 

These are the men who testify that they have seen 
the Lord. Most of them are still living. They go 
everywhere, bearing witness that he is risen again. 
They are ready to c}ie for their faith. But if Christ 
be not risen, they are false witnesses every one. 
They bear witness to what they have seen with their 
own eyes. Either they are the victims of an illusion 
without parallel in the whole course of history, or 
they are liars who are ready to lay down their lives 
for a lie. 

If Christ be not risen, 

(rf) Ye are yet in your sins. This is the gospel 
message, " By grace have ye been saved through 
faith." But your faith is vain, if Christ is not risen. 
You have laid hold upon one who had no power to 
serve. You have committed yourselves to the care 
of the dead. " The wages of sin is death." He came 
to deliver us from the power of death. But how 
shall he break off from us the fetters of death if he is 
still bound by those fetters himself? How can he 
save others who could not save himself? Your sins 
still rest upon your own head. You are like the 
prisoner who, in the darkness of his narrow cell, 
dreams of liberty. Bright is the sun, sweet the air 
of freedom, dear the faces of his fellow men. But 
soon he awakes to the stern reality that surrounds 
him. The walls of the prison shut him in, the irons 



94 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

are upon his hands and feet. The darkness is deeper, 
the loneliness more bitter, because of this brief taste 
of liberty, though it were only in a vision of the 
night. You dream of freedom, of the liberty of the 
children of God ; but you are in bondage still. You 
dream of salvation, but you are lost in sin. You 
dream of a Saviour, but the body which you fondly 
hoped had borne your sins upon the tree has mold- 
ered away in Joseph's tomb. You dream of heaven, 
but hell opens its gates to receive you, and there 
shall be your home. The burden of guilt that you 
fancied you had cast upon Christ is crushing you 
down to darkness and despair. There is no Saviour, 
no salvation, no life eternal. The cross is vain unless 
the grave is empty. A dead man has no power to 
save. After all your faith and hope and vain striv- 
ings after holiness, you are dead in trespasses and 
sins, children of wrath and not of God. 

If Christ be not risen, 

(e) " They also that are fallen asleep in Christ 
have perished." 

About twenty-five years have passed, almost the 
lifetime of a generation, since Jesus was laid in his 
rocky tomb. How many believers have fallen asleep 
in him, calling upon him with expiring breath, re- 
joicing in the thought that they were about to depart 
and be with him, which is far better. Some of them 
shed their blood for him, gladly laying down their 
lives for the honor of his name. They trusted him 
with all their hearts and rested upon his promise 
that he would give unto th'em eternal life. In that 



THE RISEN CHRIST 95 

joyful hope they lived and died. I remember 
Stephen, the first martyr. I saw his face shine like 
the face of an angel. I heard him cry, " I see the 
heavens opened and the Son of man standing on the 
right hand of God," and he called upon him, pray- 
ing, " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit " ; and calmly 
fell asleep. 

It is five years since I first preached the gospel to 
you in Corinth. Many of those who heard me and 
believed are gone. They died in the full assurance 
of faith. They believed the word that Jesus spoke, 
" In my Father's house are many mansions ; . . . I 
go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and pre- 
pare a place for you, I come again, and will receive 
you unto myself ; that where I am, there ye may be 
also." You committed them to the earth, believing 
that you laid them in the arms of Jesus. You were 
comforted in their death by the hope that they had 
entered into life. But it is all a delusion, if Christ 
be not risen. They dreamed of heaven, they wake 
in hell. They have perished every one. They are 
lost, all lost, forever lost, for they are yet in their 
sins, and the wrath of God rests upon them through 
eternity. The gospel is a fable, salvation is a dream, 
sin and judgment alone are real. Those who fell 
asleep in Jesus have perished everlastingly. Father, 
mother, husband, wife, child, friend they are all 
lost. 

We commit our beloved dead to the earth in the 
glad hope of a glorious immortality. By the side of 
the open grave we have seen Jesus standing, and 



96 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

have heard from his lips the blessed words on which 
we rest : " I am the resurrection and the life : he that 
believeth on me, though he die, yet shall he live ; and 
whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall never 
die." " Thy brother shall rise again." Upon the 
stone that marks their last resting place we inscribe 
the words that have brought peace and comfort to 
our sorrowing hearts r " I know that my Redeemer 
liveth," " Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord," 
" They shall see his face," " For we know that if the 
earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have 
a building from God, a house not made with hands, 
eternal in the heavens." There are many tiny graves 
in which are laid the bodies of little children. Over 
them is the inscription, " Suffer the little children, 
and forbid them not, to come unto me: for to such 
belongeth the kingdom of heaven." We have been 
greatly comforted by these gracious words. But 
how terribly are we deceived, if Christ be not risen. 
Then are they falsehoods, every one of them. There 
is no Redeemer, no heavenly home, no Kingdom of 
heaven for little children. Let us take mallet and 
chisel and go from grave to grave, striking out these 
flattering words letter by letter till not one lying 
syllable remains. 

What shall we inscribe instead ? " Death is an 
eternal sleep ?" Terrible as those words may be they 
fall immeasurably short of the awful reality. As all 
who slumber there are involved in a common fate, as 
all are yet in their sins, there is no need of carving 
upon each separate tombstone the word of doom. 



THE RISEN CHRIST 97 

Let us place above the entrance to every cemetery 
the words that Dante saw inscribed above the gates 
of hell : " All hope abandon, ye who enter here." 
" They also who have fallen asleep in Christ have 
perished." 

These are the consequences that follow the denial 
of the resurrection. " Our preaching is vain," 
" Your faith is vain," " Ye are yet in your sins." 
" We are found false witnesses of God," " They also 
that are fallen asleep in Christ have perished." 
Truly are we then of all men most pitiable, we who 
have believed a lie and set our hope upon the dead. 
Life may be a pleasant dream, but death shall shat- 
ter our illusions, and set us face to face with the grim 
realities of judgment. 

But hearken to this trumpet peal of exultation: 
" Now hath Christ been raised from the dead, the 
firstfruits of them that are asleep." " The Lord is 
risen," cry the mighty hosts of those on earth who 
have felt his saving power and rejoice in his constant 
presence. " The Lord is risen indeed," is the re- 
sponse like the sound of many waters, from the mul- 
titude that no man can number, who see his face and 
bow before his throne in the kingdom above. And 
every ransomed soul in heaven and on earth replies, 
" Amen and Amen." Our faith stands not in the 
wisdom of men but in the power of God. Our hope 
is fixed upon the living One who was dead, and be- 
hold he is alive for evermore. Our sins are blotted 
out for his name's sake. Our beloved dead are safe. 
No man shall pluck them out of his hand, the hand 



98 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

that was nailed to the cross of Calvary for their re- 
demption. He hath opened to all believers the gates 
of everlasting life. Here and hereafter, now and for- 
ever, he is our Saviour and friend. The utmost reach 
of our faith and hope falls immeasurably short of the 
truth and the grace that are found in him. He is all 
that we expect, and infinitely more, able to do for us 
exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think. 

In his rapturous flight Paul has borne us to the 
skies, beyond the realm of time and sense, to that 
heavenly home where death is swallowed up in 
victory. Now he brings us back to earth. We have 
not yet attained that perfect life. It is reserved for 
those who are faithful here. Only through fidelity 
to the tasks of to-day shall we find the way to ever- 
lasting life. 

" Wherefore, my beloved brethren," seeing we 
have such a Saviour, such a hope, such a responsibil- 
ity, "be ye stedfast, unmovable, always abounding 
in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that 
your labor is not vain in the Lord." The path of 
duty is the path of life. 



THE FOLLY OF SIN 99 

VIII 
THE FOLLY OF SIN 

" When he came to himself." 

Luke 15:17 

The phrase does not indicate that he had been 
insane, though indeed he was affected with that 
moral insanity which the Scripture terms folly and 
sin. It means he came to his senses. We are ac- 
customed to say, when we are out of sorts, I am not 
myself to-day. If one whom we esteem gives way to 
bad temper, or falls below our expectation, we say 
charitably, He is not himself. In these common 
forms of speech we recognize that a man is himself 
only when he is at his best. The true self is the bet- 
ter self. This man of the story had been in a manner 
beside himself. He was lost to reason and con- 
science. The sensual in him overcame the rational, 
the brute mastered the man. He gave himself up to 
lust and appetite. When reason and conscience 
began to reassert themselves, when the higher nature 
began to stir within him, it is said that he came to 
himself. A man is himself only as his life unfolds 
according to the divine purpose. 

Hunger and rags and wretchedness brought him 
to his senses. Experience is a good teacher, because 
it wields a vigorous rod. Often it gives a clear head 
through a sore back, and flogs us to our senses. 
When in this case the brute was tamed by hunger, 
the man's better self had a chance to rise. He had 



100 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

learned much. His eyes were opened to see his 
folly. The cup of pleasure was sweet at first, but 
the dregs were exceeding bitter. Wild oats may be 
sown in joy, but they are reaped in tears. When 
wealth gives place to want, and poverty takes the 
place of plenty, when the wages of sin is rags and 
husks, it is time that a man should come to himself. 

His was the folly of a wasted life. He left his 
home with his pockets full of money, with high 
hopes, great expectations.- The world was all before 
him. He journeyed to a far country. How long he 
remained there we are not told. Perhaps it was not 
many months. He stayed until his money was all 
gone, but a fast young man soon runs through a 
fortune. Whether the time was long or short, what 
had he to show for it? What was the fruit of these 
weeks and months? Money gone, good name gone, 
virtuous habits gone. What had he gained? Rags 
to wear and husks to eat. He paid dear for such 
garments and such fare. " The drunkard and the 
glutton shall come to poverty; and drowsiness wili 
clothe a man with rags." He had devoted himself to 
the task of throwing away all that he had, of getting 
rid of every penny of his wealth, every shred of repu- 
tation, every vestige of good habits, and he had won 
eminent success. His was the folly of a wasted life. 
It is highly significant that the common word for sin, 
both in the Old Testament and in the New, means 
literally " missing the mark." The sinful life misses 
the mark at which it ought to aim, the end of its 
creation. And further it misses the mark at which it 



THE FOLLY OF SIN 101 

does aim. This young man sought liberty, and we 
find him the menial of a stranger. He sought pleas- 
ure, and has come to feed with the swine. The Devil 
is a liar from the beginning, and his promises are 
never kept. 

His was again the folly of enfeebled powers. Dis- 
sipation shatters the nerves, weakens the body, dead- 
ens the mind, damns the soul. To have thrown away 
his fortune, wasted months of life, was bad enough ; 
but his folly had yet a lower depth. He spent his 
money and his time in accomplishing his own ruin, 
gave all that he had for his own destruction. Bad 
men and women gathered around him, and he not 
only let them lead him astray but paid them for do- 
ing it. If any young man here is setting out on that 
way, just beginning with irresolute step to walk in 
the counsel of the wicked, let him take the warning. 
If you go on, you will lose all you have, your money, 
your good name, your character, your soul. And 
what will be your reward? What return will you 
receive? What will you have to show for it? A bad 
name, a diseased body, a lost soul. " The wages of 
sin is death." You buy damnation too dear. This it 
is worth your while to remember the profligate 
pays the Devil all he has for the privilege of going 
to hell. 

Simply to throw away time and money were bad 
enough, but to spend them for our own destruction 
is the very madness of sin. No wonder this man is 
represented as beside himself. 

And again his was the folly of a wretched state. 



102 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

Sin had brought him to want and misery. The folly 
of his condition lies in this, that he brought it on 
himself. If it were the result of misfortune, if he 
had been overtaken by sickness, or disaster while he 
was trying to lead an honest life, he could bear it 
with a clear conscience and a brave heart. Many a 
man without food or clothing has enjoyed peace of 
soul, has cried with the prophet, " Though the fig- 
tree shall not flourish, neither shall fruit be in the 
vines ; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields 
shall yield no food ; the flock shall be cut off from the 
fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I 
will rejoice in Jehovah, I will joy in the God of my 
salvation." Hab. 3 :17, 18. But more dreadful than 
the hunger that gnawed his vitals was the guilt that 
tormented his soul. His condition was entirely 
gratuitous ; these rags, this wretchedness, were un- 
called for, unnecessary. He brought it all on him- 
self without cause or reason. He is here only be- 
cause he chose a course of life which could have no 
other end. He must have known other men who 
tried that way, must have seen whither it led them. 
He had seen them smart under the lash. But like 
thousands of men to-day, he believed that the way 
which led others to ruin would lead him to peace. 
He fancied, as thousands fancy to-day, that he could 
enjoy the pleasures and escape the penalties of sin. 
But it has been truly said, No man can steal the 
Devil's bait. If you try to steal the bait, you will 
feel the hook. 

Behold then, the folly of the man the folly of a 



THE FOLLY OF SIN 103 

wasted life, of enfeebled powers, of a wretched state. 
Can folly sink to lower depths? Yes. Folly brought 
him to this place, but it will be more desperate folly 
to remain. Hunger brought him to his senses. The 
fumes of the wine cup no longer disorder his brain. 
The whisper of conscience is not drowned by the 
grunting of the swine as by the siren voices that 
lured him to his ruin. There are two voices that 
speak to him, the voice of memory and the voice of 
conscience. " How many hired servants of my 
father's have bread enough and to spare?" That is 
the voice of memory, recalling the peace and plenty 
of his father's house. " Father, I have sinned against 
heaven, and in thy sight : I am no more worthy to 
be called thy son." There spoke the voice of con- 
science. He says, " I played the fool in coming to 
this place. Is that a reason why I should continue 
to play the fool by staying here? Here I am starv- 
ing, while the servants in my father's house have 
more than they can eat. I can put an end to this 
when I please. I have only to leave the swine and 
go home." 

Here lay the folly of his condition, that he brought 
it on himself. Here, too, lay the hopefulness of it. 
He was not driven out from his home. His father 
did not say to him, " Take your portion and begone, 
and never darken my door again." In that case he 
would have had no hope of return. The door would 
have been closed against him, and nothing would be 
left him but to starve. But he went away of his own 
free will, of his own free will he may return. His 



104 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

father was sorry to see him go, he will be glad to see 
him back. If he had been born a swineherd he would 
have accepted his lot as a matter of course, and made 
the best of it. But his misery lay deeper than phys- 
ical needs. He was not in his right place. It was 
the contrast between the present and the past, it was 
the memory of the home that he had left, that gave 
the keenest edge to his distress. It is no disgrace to 
fill a lowly position. It is honest and honorable in 
the sight of God to be a swineherd, if that be the 
station which providence assigns. 

"Honor and shame from no condition rise; 
Act well your part; there all the honor lies." 

No doubt the swine were better company than the 
men and women in whose society he threw away his 
money and his reputation. But it is disgraceful to 
hold a low place when we have forfeited a higher 
place by our own misconduct. It is disgraceful for 
a man of wealth and station to come to the post of 
swineherd by way of the wine cup and the harlot. 
A man of five talents has no right to hold a position 
that a man of one talent could fill as well. It is a 
shame to do a one-talent business on a five-talent 
capital. Every man is bound to fill the largest place, 
command the widest range of influence, render the 
largest service, that the powers which God has given 
him will allow. 

This man should have held a position of honor 
and influence among his fellow men. He was born 



THE FOLLY OF SIN 105 

to fortune. For him to be feeding swine, because he 
has thrown away his money and his opportunities, 
was a degradation and a disgrace. The wise course, 
the right course, is to return as speedily as possible 
to his proper place. He says : " I was not born to be 
a swineherd, I was not driven to it. My own folly 
brought me to this condition." That is the first 
gleam of reason that we discover in him. He came 
to his senses and saw that he was not in his right 
place. The story of his life while passion had the 
mastery of him is told in a single phrase " He 
wasted his substance with riotous living." That is 
the record of months. That is all. Wealth, body, 
soul what did he do with them? To what purpose 
did he devote them? What was the outcome of his 
life ? This is all he wasted his substance with riot- 
ous living. When he came to himself he said, " I 
will return to my father and my home." 

The story is a parable of human life. We have all 
wandered. The difference between men is not that 
some have remained at home while others have jour- 
neyed to a far country. We have all gone astray. 
The difference is that some have returned and some 
have not. It is folly enough to have left God ; it is 
greater folly to abide in sin. It is bad enough to go 
to the far country, it is worse to stay there and 
starve. 

Sin is folly. That is the name commonly given to 
it in the book of Proverbs, which represents religion 
in its everyday dress, its working clothes, the relig- 
ion not so much of the Church as of the market 



106 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

place, the street, the home. Righteousness is wis- 
dom, which begins with the fear of God ; sin is folly. 
Let us recognize in sin the folly of a wasted life. 
If you are not living for God, what are you living 
for? Is it something worthy of your capacity as a 
child of God? God has given you a nature kindred 
to his own, reason, imagination, will, has made you 
capable of holiness, clothed you with immortality. 
"What a piece of work is man! How noble in 
reason ! How infinite in faculty ! in form and mov- 
ing how express and admirable! in action how like 
an angel ! in apprehension how like a god !" This 
magnificent equipment is yours. You have thoughts 
that wander through eternity, eyes that may see 
God, a heart that he has created to be his temple. 
What are you doing with this august nature of 
yours? Are you trying to crush the soul that was 
made to live forever, within the limits of a few score 
years? Are you making your immortal part a 
drudge, the slave of the belly and the back? We 
are half dust, half deity; are you burying the deity 
beneath the dust? Are you setting the foot of pas- 
sion on the neck of reason and of conscience? Are 
you doing anything that will endure? Have you a 
purpose that spans the grave? Are you closing your 
eyes to inevitable death? Is your life turned to 
noble ends, or is it running to waste? These are 
questions that we must face before the judgment 
seat of the Almighty. He shall ask: "What have 
you done with the life that I gave you? I endowed 
it with godlike capabilities, set before it immeasur- 



THE FOLLY OF SIN 107 

able opportunities, gave you all that becomes a child 
of the King of kings! What have you done with 
yourself? Have you filled the place, accomplished 
the end, for which you were created? Have you 
finished the work that I .gave you to do?" There are 
some who will be forced to answer : " This soul of 
mine, godlike, immortal, I dragged in the mire of 
sensual indulgence, I made it a slave to appetite, I 
set it to serve the body. I crushed its aspirations, 
crippled its powers, clipped its wings, and for all 
that thou gavest me I have nothing to show but a 
wasted life." 

Let us recognize in sin the folly of enfeebled 
powers. If you are not serving God, are you grow- 
ing wiser, better, stronger, in the service of sin? It 
is unspeakably sad that a man should grow worse as 
he grows older. Are you as near to God as you 
were twenty years ago ? When you were a child and 
knelt at your mother's knee to say your evening 
prayer you felt that God was very near; he was as 
real to you as your mother. How is it to-day? Has 
the world come between you and your Father, so 
that God seems very far away? You may have in- 
creased in knowledge and in wealth, but they are 
dearly bought if they have darkened your vision of 
God. Are the lessons of experience, the discipline 
of God's providence, the teachings of his Word, the 
stirrings of his Spirit all lost? To have the heart 
grow harder as you grow older, less sensitive to the 
divine appeal, to be farther from God in spirit the 
nearer you draw to his judgment seat, to continue 



108 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

heaping sin upon sin while time is bearing you with 
tremendous swiftness toward your final reckoning 
is that a picture of your condition? 

Let us recognize in sin the folly of a wretched 
state. Are you satisfied? Do you feel that you are 
what you ought to be, what you could be? If you 
are satisfied, sin has benumbed your conscience, and 
the fatal disease is far advanced. But not many men 
are content with themselves when they stop to re- 
flect. A great part of the misery of sin lies in the 
sense of degradation, the consciousness of powers 
undeveloped. We have dragged in the dust a nature 
made in the image of God. We have said to the soul, 
I set you to serve the body, to feed it, and clothe it 
and pamper it. That is your mission. You shall 
bend all your energies to making money that the 
body may be well clothed and nourished. You have 
no time to think of God or righteousness or the life 
to come, for if your thoughts are busied with these 
things you may lose a chance to make a dollar. We 
have tried to take an immortal soul and make it the 
slave of a perishing body. And the soul protests, 
resists, rebels. You are restless and dissatisfied. 
Ten thousand dollars has not brought you peace; 
you fancy twenty thousand will suffice. But the 
trouble is you cannot clothe the soul with purple and 
fine linen. You cannot feed the soul with sumptuous 
fare. The soul cries out for God. You are often 
discontented and want something you know not 
what. You want your Father, your home. Let your 
soul speak out. Listen to its voice, hear its cry. 



THE FOLLY OF SIN 109 

Well said Augustine, who himself had tried the 
ways of sin and found them barren, " Thou hast 
made us for thyself, and our hearts are restless until 
they rest in thee." 

There are men who repine over the chances lost to 
make a fortune. At such a time, they say, I might 
have won wealth by a single stroke. And they 
brood over the contrast between the poverty that 
presses them and the fortune that they missed. 
They curse the folly that threw away the golden op- 
portunity. But what is a fortune lost to a life lost 
a life sunk in sin when it might have been arrayed 
in righteousness and have borne the likeness of God? 

Let us recognize in sin the threefold folly of a 
wasted life, enfeebled powers, a wretched state. It 
was our folly that brought us to this pass. There 
lies the guilt, there too lies the hopefulness of our 
condition. We are far from God not because he 
thrust us out and drove us away. We are here not 
by reason of divine decree, not through necessity or 
fate, we are here because we chose to come. If God 
had cast us off we should have no hope. If he had 
closed the doors of heaven against us, nothing would 
remain for us but to stay here and die. Jesus spoke 
of us as " lost." It is a sad word, but a hopeful word, 
too. Not cast off, not driven out, but lost. If we are 
lost, we have somewhere a father, a home. " The 
Son of man came to seek and to save that which is 
lost," he is come to lead us home to God. God did 
not leave us, we left him. Let us thank the Saviour 
for teaching us that word, " lost." The alienation 



110 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

between God and man is of man, and not of God. 
The word " lost " may be music to our ears. You 
have wandered far, but the way is open to return. 
The doors have never been closed against you, the 
Father has never given you up. You left him, you 
may return to him. To this free will of ours, this 
divinest attribute of the soul of man, Satan appealed, 
to lead us into sin, to this free will God appeals to 
lead us home again. It was folly to forsake God, to 
leave our home, to believe the voice of the Tempter 
rather than the voice of our Father. It is deeper and 
deadlier folly to remain in sin when the homeward 
way lies open and the Father waits to welcome. 
You may have wasted years of life, will you waste 
the time that yet remains? Your soul may be en- 
feebled by sin, will you give it over to eternal death ? 
You may be restless and dissatisfied to-day, how 
then will you abide the judgment of the great white 
throne? Because we have sinned, shall we persist 
in sin? Because we are hungry, shall we insist on 
starving? Because we have played the fool, shall 
we go on playing the fool until the curtain falls? 
We should exclaim at the folly of this man if he had 
stayed and starved. But what of our own folly? 
Here not the life of the body, but the life of the soul, 
eternal life, is at stake. If you continue in sin there 
is only one end, and that is death. But there is no 
need that any man should die. " Let the wicked 
forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his 
thoughts ; and let him return unto Jehovah, and he 
will have mercy upon him ; and to our God, for he 



THE FOLLY OF SIN 111 

will abundantly pardon." With that invitation 
sounding in our ears, if any one of us is lost it is 
because he will not be saved; if any one of us is 
condemned in the last day, it will be because he 
chose death rather than life. Shall we not come to 
ourselves, to our senses? Shall we not let the voice 
of reason and of conscience be heard ? Yea, shall we 
not be silent for a time while God speaks to us, our 
Father, bidding us turn from our evil ways and live? 
O my friend, if there be in your soul any desire for 
righteousness, for heaven, for immortality, for God, 
lay hold upon eternal life as it is proffered to you in 
Jesus Christ. 

A lover who was compelled to leave his beloved 
exposed to the temptations of a royal court gave her 
a talisman, a moth suspended between a flame and a 
star. It reflected visibly the workings of her heart, 
laid bare to her eyes every change of feeling. When 
she was inclined to yield to temptation, the moth 
sank toward the flame; when she resisted, it rose 
toward the star. It is a figure of our life. Yield to 
sin and the soul sinks toward destruction; resist, 
conquer, and it rises to the stars. 



112 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

IX 
TRUE AND FALSE RELIGION 

" He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what 
doth Jehovah require of thee, but to do justly, and to love 
kindness, and to walk humbly with thy God?" 

Micah 6:8 

When the prophet rebuked the people for their 
sins, and threatened them with divine judgment, 
they inquired, " What shall we do that we may avert 
the anger and win the favor of God?" What does 
God require of us? This is the answer, Do justly, 
love mercy, walk humbly with thy God. Nowhere 
in Scripture is there a nobler conception of religion 
given. Justice, kindness, a humble walk with God ; 
he in whom these are found shall be perfect and 
entire, lacking in nothing. 

Over against this representation of the prophet 
we may set various types of religion which appear 
in every age, and hold a large place in the Church 
to-day. We may often define most effectively by 
contrast, and the grandeur of the prophet's thought 
is seen when it is set against the notions of religion 
which men have framed for themselves. Four types 
claim our attention. 

(1) The ceremonial type. It is aptly illustrated 
by the question of the people here : " Wherewith 
shall I come before Jehovah, and bow myself before 
the high God? shall I come before him with burnt- 
offerings, with calves a year old? will Jehovah be 
pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thou- 



TRUE AND FALSE RELIGION 113 

sands of rivers of oil? shall I give my first-born for 
my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin 
of my soul?" Religion is something given, some- 
thing done, an act, a form, ia ceremony, an offering, 
a sacrifice. When these are rendered, the claims of 
God are satisfied, and he requires no more. 

Religion has two parts, soul and body. As soon 
as the spirit begins to express itself in act, it clothes 
itself with forms and ceremonies. They are as nec- 
essary to religion as clothing to the body. Ritual 
is the garb of religion. But in its essential nature 
religion is spiritual, a matter of the inner life, of 
motive, disposition, character. The history of every 
religion attests how surely and easily the form en- 
croaches upon the spirit and usurps the foremost 
place. Men seek refuge from moral obligations in 
ritual observances. That is religion made easy, for 
no mode of service, no measure of gift or offering 
or sacrifice lays upon us a burden to compare with 
the requirement of a holy heart. The people of 
Israel were willing to take upon themselves any 
burden of an outward sort if they might escape the 
law of righteousness. All other surrender and 
sacrifice is easy in comparison with the surrender 
of the heart and the sacrifice of the will. They sub- 
stituted ritual for righteousness. Throughout their 
history two forces were at work, represented by the 
prophet and the priest. The priesthood was an office 
of divine appointment, and was charged with duties 
of high importance. But because the priests were 
largely concerned with the external aspect of relig- 



114 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

ion, charged with outward observances, they be- 
came men of the letter rather than of the spirit. 
Their religion grew hard, narrow, formal. They 
tithed mint and anise and cummin, and left undone 
the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, and 
faith. Religion consisted in pursuing a prescribed 
routine, and if this did not bring peace to the heart 
new regulations were framed, new burdens laid, new 
restrictions imposed, until men were hemmed in and 
straitened on every side, and bowed down beneath a 
grievous weight of ordinances which had no warrant 
in the law of God. 

Over against the priesthood God raised up the 
prophets. The priesthood was a hereditary office. 
The prophet was called directly and immediately by 
God. It was his mission to keep before the minds of 
the people the true nature and purpose of the law. 
Samuel grasped the heart of the prophet's message 
when he said to Saul : " Hath Jehovah as great de- 
light in burnt-offerings and sacrifices, .as in obeying 
the voice of Jehovah ? Behold, to obey is better than 
sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." The 
question at issue that day was whether Saul or God 
was king in Israel. Saul was willing to do anything 
except what God commanded him. He would not 
obey but he would sacrifice. God said, " Give me thy 
heart," and he .answered, " Nay, but I will give thee 
sheep and oxen, even the best of them." The answer 
of Samuel throws into clear relief these contrasted 
conceptions of religion, held by the prophet and the 
priest. And the thought of the prophet reaches its 



TRUE AND FALSE RELIGION 115 

highest expression, attains its final form, in these 
words of Micah. The whole history of Israel is 
shaped by the conflict between these opposing con- 
ceptions of religion. 

Jesus and the Jews renewed the battle of the 
prophet and the priest. Ritual is religion, said the 
Jews; righteousness is religion, said Jesus. For a 
time ritualism prevailed, and righteousness was 
nailed to the cross of Calvary. The strife is raging 
to-day in every church, in every soul. The prophet 
is trying to lift us to the height of holiness; the 
priest bids us be content with the forms of worship 
and of service. There is a prophet and a priest in 
every heart. On one side is the voice of God, calling 
us to self-surrender, a godly life ; on the other side 
love of ease and indolence and self-will bid us spare 
ourselves the cross, and substitute for it a round of 
formal observances. 

The most persistent and pestilent heresy in the 
Church to-day, as in every age, is the denial of the 
absolute sovereignty of God over the lives of men. 
It invades our literature, creeps into our teaching, is 
even proclaimed from the pulpit. Sometime ago in 
a paper prepared for use in Sunday schools I came 
upon these amazing words, " How good God is ; he 
gives us six days in the week for ourselves, and asks 
that we give him only one day of the seven." It is 
the voice of the priest that speaks. Give God one 
day of the week, and the rest is yours. God is good, 
but not in that way. He does not give us six days in 
the week for ourselves, not one day, not one hour. 



116 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

Every moment of our lives belongs to him, and is to 
be used according to his will and for his glory. We 
are to serve him on Monday as truly as on Sunday, 
though in a different way. We serve him as truly in 
the work of the week as in the worship of the Sab- 
bath. We cannot give him one day unless we give 
him every day. How can we serve the world for 
six days, and serve him in truth on the seventh? 
The week is a chain of seven links ; can we leave six 
of them on the ground, and lift the other to the 
skies? 

Or we may fancy that if one tenth of our income 
is devoted to religious and charitable purposes the 
remainder is ours to use as we will. Let us observe 
that when a division of any kind is made between 
God and self, self always gets the lion's share. 
Never is it proposed that God shall have six days in 
seven, or nine dollars in ten. We do not give God 
anything as we ought until we give him everything. 
The gift of self must precede all other gifts, if they 
shall be acceptable to him. " The gift without the 
giver is bare." Let the prophet speak to us, " Ye 
are not your own ; for ye were bought with a price." 
Jesus died not to redeem one day in seven or one 
dollar in ten. He died to redeem us altogether, body, 
soul, and spirit, every moment, every dollar, every 
thought of the heart, every interest, motive, purpose, 
activity of the life. 

(2) The aesthetic type. It is respectable, genteel, 
fashionable, in many communities to go to church. 
There are persons who with a little persuasion on 



TRUE AND FALSE RELIGION 117 

the part of the minister and proper attention from 
the members of the congregation may be induced to 
patronize the services of the sanctuary, to look with 
condescending interest upon the affairs of the King- 
dom, and even to touch the music or the flowers with 
the tips of dainty fingers. The Church, like an army, 
has its camp followers, who hang on to its skirts, 
prepared with equal readiness to enjoy its privileges 
and evade its duties. 

Years ago a family connected with the church to 
which I was ministering removed to New York City. 
Sometime later I met two of them and asked them 
if they had found a church home. They informed 
me that they had been visiting various churches, but 
had not yet made a choice. But there was one 
church to which they were strongly drawn. And the 
reason for their preference was interesting. They 
said nothing of the minister. It may be presumed 
that there was one, but he was apparently regarded 
as an adjunct of minor importance. Nothing was 
said of the music, the devotional spirit, the social at- 
mosphere. But they were moved to enthusiasm as 
they said, " You ought to see the long line of car- 
riages before the door." Carlyle poured the vials of 
his wrath upon those who thought that keeping a gig 
in England was a mark of respectability; what 
would he have said if he had known that churches 
are measured by the equipages that adorn the 
streets ; that religion is a social function, nothing 
more, and is measured by the standards of society 
alone. 



118 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

This mindless, heartless, soulless type of religion 
we may gladly dismiss with this brief mention. 

(3) The intellectual type. The seat of religion is 
the brain. Religion is right thinking. Of course we 
do not disparage sound doctrine, for man is a ra- 
tional creature and thought and life are intimately 
related. But there is a faith that bears no fruit in 
the life, and it is dead. Orthodox belief, if it stands 
alone, is not a virtue but a grievous fault, does not 
save but lays upon men a heavier condemnation. 
" To him therefore that knoweth to do good, and 
doeth it not, to him it is sin." James 4:17. Truth 
is in order to goodness, Jesus said to his disciples, 
after he had given them an example of the ministry 
of love by washing their feet. " If ye know these 
things, blessed are ye " and there are those who end 
the sentence there. Blessed are ye, if ye know. But 
Jesus went on, " Blessed are ye, if ye do them." It 
is not mere knowledge of the truth that brings a 
blessing. If that were true, the spirits that dwell in 
hell would be richly blest. " The demons also be- 
lieve," but their faith yields only fear, " and shud- 
der." James 2 :19. The most heinous sin for which 
a man is called to give account at the bar of judg- 
ment may be his orthodoxy. For what sin can be 
more heinous than to know the truth, and refuse 
to obey? 

Religion is more than theology, more than right 
thinking Right thinking is essential, but it must 
issue in right living. To see the right and deliber- 
ately choose the wrong is the last extremity of sin, 



TRUE AND FALSE RELIGION 119 

and the clearer the light the more heinous the sin 
must be. There are men who put their faith in their 
creed, but the better their creed the heavier shall be 
their judgment, if knowing the truth, they willfully 
go astray. It was against the orthodox party of his 
day that Jesus pronounced the most terrible judg- 
ments that ever fell from his lips. To the Pharisees 
he said, " If ye were blind, ye would have no sin : but 
now ye say, We see: your sin remaineth." John 
9:41. 

The teaching of Scripture upon this point is 
abundantly clear. Neither faith nor knowledge has 
value in the sight of God unless the fruits of it ap- 
pear in the life. " Faith apart from works is dead." 
James 2:26. "Knowledge puffeth up." I Cor. 
8 :1. To know and not to do is of all sins the most 
grievous, for it is the sin against light. Yet we con- 
stantly measure men by intellectual rather than by 
moral or spiritual standards, and judge them by their 
opinions rather than their character and conduct. 
Orthodoxy covers a multitude of sins in our sight, 
though it may be itself the worst of sins. 

History unhappily furnishes many illustrations. 
About a hundred and fifty years ago a tract was pub- 
lished in England called " The Old Fox Tarred and 
Feathered." Who was the old fox thus ignomin- 
iously treated? John Wesley. Surely not John 
Wesley, the founder of Methodism? Yes, he was 
the fox. And who applied the tar and feathers? 
Toplady. Not the author of " Rock of Ages?" Yes. 
he was the man. He called John Wesley the most 



120 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

rancorous hater of the gospel system that had ever 
appeared in England. He doubted if an Arminian 
could be saved, yet held it a duty to pray for him if, 
perchance, he might be led to see the error of his 
ways, and repent and be forgiven. And Wesley re- 
torted with equal warmth and equal courtesy, 
" These men defend their positions with arguments 
worthy of Bedlam and language worthy of Billings- 
gate." Yet these were two of the godliest men in 
England. Upon what did they differ? What was it 
that stirred such bitterness in these saintly hearts? 
They could not agree upon the doctrine of predesti- 
nation and free will, and because they disagreed 
upon a subject which neither of them understood 
they reviled each other in terms that would have 
disgraced a street brawl. Who doubts that Wesley 
and Toplady, Armenian and Calvinist, long ago 
joined hands in the heavenly home; and if the re- 
deemed may use such language, they must often say, 
as they commune together of those days on earth, 
" W'hat fools we used to be down there." 

Newman Hall wrote a tract called " Come to 
Jesus," which has been blessed in leading many 
thousand souls to the Saviour. Later in life he be- 
came engaged in ia theological controversy which 
grew more bitter, as such quarrels are apt to do, with 
each new stage of the discussion. At length he pre- 
pared a paper which he meant should be a crushing 
and final reply. He would close the argument by an 
attack that should be irresistible and overwhelming. 
He showed his opponent no mercy, and felt that he 



TRUE AND FALSE RELIGION 121 

had beaten him to the ground. When the paper was 
finished, he read it to a friend, and asked triumph- 
antly, "How do you think I have handled him?" 
" Well," said his friend, " you have effectually dis- 
posed of him. Have you thought of .a title for your 
paper?" " No," was the answer. " Have you any- 
thing to suggest?" "I propose," said his friend, 
" that you call it, ' Go to the Devil/ by the author of 
' Come to Jesus '." The paper was never published. 

(4) The emotional type. The seat of religion is 
the sensibilities. It is purely a matter of feeling. If 
you feel good you have religion; and if you have 
religion you may live as you please. There are those 
who tell their pastor, " I have had so much trouble 
of late that I cannot go to church." Religion is a 
fair-weather friend. It used to be said in the town 
in which I began my ministry that there were per- 
sons who were converted every winter .and went 
backsliding every summer. Religion must be 
created and sustained by excitement, built up by 
stimulants. It is not a matter of regular and con- 
stant growth but of spasmodic bursts of enthusiasm, 
with long intervals of rest. It is a state of chills and 
fever, with the chills predominating. The life is gov- 
erned by moods and passions and impulses instead 
of reason and conscience. 

Love is commended to us in the Scripture as the 
highest of motives, as the heart and soul of religion. 
But love is not mere unbridled emotion. " Thou 
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and 
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all 



122 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

thy strength." There is far more than feeling here. 
Every part of our nature is enlisted feeling and 
reason and conscience and will. Love is the turning 
of the whole man toward God. The soul is not di- 
vided. We cannot love God with the heart, and re- 
main indifferent to him in the intellect and the will. 

These types of religion are all fatally defective 
because they are incomplete. True religion em- 
braces all of them and more. It has a place for rite 
and ceremony, as it expresses its thoughts and emo- 
tions in the forms of orderly devotion. It has a place 
for the love of beauty, and calls upon us to put on 
the garments of praise, and worship God in the 
beauty of holiness. It addresses the intellect, pro- 
claims the truth, and bids men hear, accept, obey. It 
appeals to the strongest emotions that may stir the 
soul. But not one of these types, not all of them to- 
gether, may furnish an adequate conception of the 
religion that God ordains. Let us turn from the 
notions of men to the wisdom of God, and hear the 
prophet as he declares to us what God requires. 
There are three points in Micah's definition : 
(1) " Do justly." Justice is rendering to every 
man his due. It requires of us the same consider- 
ation of the rights and interests of others as of our 
own. It lies at the foundation of social and indi- 
vidual righteousness. The prime duty we owe to 
our fellow men is not kindness but justice. We must 
pay our neighbor what we owe him before we under- 
take to give him of our bounty. It must be said that 
our social and industrial systems have often pre- 



TRUE AND FALSE RELIGION 123 

sented the spectacle of injustice tempered by charity. 
" Deal justly " is a refrain that the prophets never 
weary of repeating. Over against greed and selfish- 
ness and cruelty an-d oppression stands justice with 
drawn sword, defending the weak against the strong, 
guarding the rights of those who have no power of 
their own to maintain them, seeking to establish the 
law of righteousness in all the relations of men. 

There can be no lasting peace between classes and 
nations until justice is established. And there 
should be none. For the Kingdom of God is first 
righteousness, righteousness which is perfect justice, 
then peace. 

But justice is not the whole of religion. 

(2) Kindness, or mercy. And we are commanded 
not simply to show mercy, but to love it. It must be 
in us as an abiding disposition, a settled inclination, 
a habit of life. " Be ye merciful, as your Father is 
merciful." The parable of the Unmerciful Servant 
teaches us that " judgment is without mercy to him 
that hath showed no mercy." James 2:13. Mercy 
too is a debt. We are not at liberty to be kind or not 
as we will. We must be just, we must be merciful. 
We must be prepared to render to men more than is 
due them according to the strict rules of judgment, 
must deal with them as God deals with us, adding 
mercy to justice. 

" In the course of justice none of us 
Should see salvation. We do pray for mercy, 
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render 
The deeds of mercy." 



124 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

To show mercy is to give beyond what justice re- 
quires, and obey the impulse of love. And in justice 
and mercy alike we are imitators of God as dear 
children. 

Justice and mercy are the duties we owe to our fel- 
low men. But beneath them lies the supreme duty 
that we owe to God. Only as we are in right relation 
to him shall we be able to discharge the debt that we 
owe one another. 

(3) " Walk humbly with thy God." " Walk " is a 
familiar term in Scripture to denote the daily course 
and conduct of the life. To walk with God is not 
simply to obey him. Obedience may be rendered to 
an absent ruler, one whom we have never seen, with 
whom we have no sort of personal relation. To walk 
with God is to be in fellowship with him. So Enoch 
of old walked with God. He waits to be the friend 
of every day. He will go with us to our daily tasks. 
He will help us in every duty, will bless to us every 
experience of sorrow and of joy. 

But we must walk humbly with him, remembering 
that he is great and we are small ; he is holy and we 
are sinful. We are altogether unworthy to come into 
his presence, and that he receives us to fellowship 
with him is all of grace. We have great need of 
reverence in our religion, and there is often a great 
lack of it. We make light of sacred things, speak of 
God in terms of easy familiarity. Sometime ago, to 
my sorrow, I heard an evangelist who had much to 
say of hell, which seemed to be a place conveniently 
prepared for all who did not agree with him ; and it 



TRUE AND FALSE RELIGION 125 

appeared to be well filled. Every now and then he 
shouted " hell " at the top of his voice, and every- 
body laughed. A word which should never be 
named without awe, without tears, which represents 
the fate from which the Son of God shed his blood 
to deliver men, is made the theme of jest and laugh- 
ter, and that which broke the heart of Jesus is turned 
to a joke. Reverence lies at the heart of religion. 
Where it is wanting it is plain that we know neither 
God nor ourselves as we ought. 

Have we outgrown this conception of the prophet? 
Justice and mercy toward our fellow men, and a 
humble, holy walk with God, is not this what God 
requires to-day? He can ask no more, he will accept 
no less. This is still the way of duty and life, a way 
made plain to us, thrown open to us, through the life 
and death of his Son our Saviour. There is no other 
way by which we may enter into life eternal. 



126 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

X 
THE PROMISES 

" Whereby he hath granted unto us his precious and 
exceeding great promises." 

II Peter 1:4 

The promises are not mere ornaments of the 
Word, but its very strength and substance. We are 
wholly dependent upon God, and we are altogether 
unworthy of his favor. Our only hope is in his sure 
word of promise. 

There are two great facts that impress upon us 
the sense of our dependence. The first is the fact of 
sin. W'e have broken God's law, we daily break it in 
thought, word, and deed ; and we cannot make atone- 
ment for our sin, or cleanse ourselves from its pol- 
lution. Our hope of pardon .and peace is found in 
God alone, and that hope is conveyed to us by his 
gracious promises. 

There is again our ignorance of the future. No wit 
or ingenuity of man has availed to penetrate the 
darkness that veils the future from our sight. We 
may pierce the depths of space, weigh the sun, and 
measure the stars ; but the marvelous achievements 
and inventions that have marked the progress of the 
race have not availed to throw one ray of light upon 
the time to come. It is still as true to-day as it was 
in the beginning, that we know not what a day may 
bring forth. Walking amid the splendors of modern 
civilization, we are as pitifully ignorant of the future 



THE PROMISES 127 

as the first of men. God bestows upon us the good 
gifts of his providence without measure, but he doles 
out time to us with a miser's hand, not day by day, 
or hour by hour, but moment by moment. The 
passing moment is all that we may call our own. 
We know nothing of the future except what he has 
been pleased to reveal ; there is nothing to throw 
light upon the future but a promise. 

A complete study of the promises would embrace 
all Scripture, for it is woven of promises throughout 
its whole extent. The Old and New Testaments, 
what are they but covenants ; and what is a covenant 
but a promise upon condition? The Bible is a book 
of great events interpreted by great promises, of 
great promises fulfilled by great events. We can 
consider only some of the salient characteristics of 
the promises of Scripture, that we may see how true 
is the word of Peter that they are precious and ex- 
ceeding great. 

(1) Consider the number of the promises. The 
Bible is preeminently the book of promise. No other 
book recognizes so clearly the weakness and the sin 
of man, no other book reveals such a great and 
gracious God. When gracious God speaks to guilty 
man, his word must be a word of promise. 

The Scripture begins with promise. The first 
word spoken to man, the creature, was the promise 
of dominion ; the first word spoken to man, the sin- 
ner, was the promise of redemption. And the Scrip- 
ture closes with the promise, "Yea: I come 
quickly"; to which the heart of the believer re- 



128 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

spends, "Amen: come, Lord Jesus." The Bible 
opens with the promise of the first coming of Christ, 
and ends with the promise of his second coming; 
and all the way between is strewn with promises, as 
the sky is studded with stars. They illumine every 
page, and shed the light of heaven upon every step 
of our journey from the cradle to the grave. 

(2) Consider the variety of the promises. They 
are suited to every occasion, every experience, every 
need. Under whatever conditions a man may be 
placed, there is always a promise to bring courage 
and cheer to his heart, a promise that speaks to him 
by name. The promises, too, are ministering spirits, 
sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of 
salvation; and they come to men arrayed in the 
power and grace of God. 

There are great historic promises which determine 
the course of nations, and shape the destiny of 
mankind. There are two of these promises in the 
Old Testament. The first is the promise that the 
seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head. 
The very form of the promise is significant. It was 
not addressed directly to man, but is contained in 
the curse pronounced upon the serpent, even as 
Christ in whom all the promises are fulfilled was 
made a curse for us. This promise is in three parts : 
(a) There shall be enmity between the woman and 
the serpent, and between his seed and her seed. 
Friendship with Satan was man's undoing, only 
through enmity and strife with Satan shall man es- 
cape the bondage and the guilt of sin. (&) In this 



THE PROMISES 129 

conflict man shall prevail. " He shall bruise thy 
head," the vital part, (c) But though man triumphs, 
he shall suffer sorely. " Thou shalt bruise his heel." 
The whole course of human history is the fulfillment 
of this primal curse, this primal promise; is the 
record of the sorrows and sufferings through which 
man must tread Satan under his feet. The promise 
is fulfilled in Christ, who through Gethsemane and 
Calvary destroyed the works of the Devil and won 
the name that is above every name; and leads the 
victorious host of his followers in triumph to the 
eternal city. All history is the record of the conflict, 
the struggle, the victory of mankind through Christ. 

The other great promise of the Old Testament 
which sweeps the whole course of history is the 
word spoken to Abraham : " In thee and in thy seed 
shall all the families of the earth be blessed." The 
earlier promise is taken up, confirmed, defined. How 
the first promise shall be fulfilled is declared by the 
second it shall be through the seed of Abraham. 
The names given him in Scripture attest the place he 
holds in the history of redemption. He is the friend 
of God and the father of believers alike under the 
old covenant and the new. " They that are of faith, 
the same are sons of Abraham." Gal. 3 :7. " And 
if ye are Christ's, then a.re ye Abraham's seed, heirs 
according to promise." Gal. 3 :29. 

All history is the unfolding of this promise, given 
to man in the hour of his sin, renewed when the 
covenant of grace was made with Abraham and his 
seed. Eleven chapters of Genesis are given to the 



130 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

story of mankind before Abraham, all the remainder 
of Scripture is the story of him and of his seed, his 
seed after the flesh and after the spirit. On these 
two promises hang all the law and the prophets. 

There are also two of these great historic promises 
in the New Testament. The first is the promise of 
the Lord Jesus that he will come again in glory to 
judge the world and take his ransomed people to 
himself. The first and second comings of Christ are 
the fixed points that determine the course of history. 
Then there is the promise that spans the whole 
period between his coming in flesh and his coming 
in glory. " All authority hath been given unto me 
in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore, and make 
disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the 
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy 
Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatso- 
ever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you al- 
ways, even unto the end of the world." Observe 
the sweep of these words. There is first the claim 
of authority, which lays the foundation for the prom- 
ise. Then the duty is enjoined, " make disciples of 
all the nations." Then the promise is given, " I am 
with you always." On these two promises hangs 
all the New Testament. 

All Scripture, all history is the unfolding of these 
great promises under the old covenant and the new. 
Nothing has happened or can happen which is not 
embraced within their ample scope. They clothe in 
words the eternal purpose and decree of God, who 



THE PROMISES 131 

sees the end from the beginning, and orders all 
things according to the counsel of his will. 

There are again great comprehensive promises 
that cover the whole life of the believer, and are 
suited to every occasion and experience. They are 
the promises of him from whom proceedeth every 
good and perfect gift, who is able to make all grace 
abound unto us. What is that word " grace " in- 
deed but a promise as broad as life, as deep as the 
heart of God, " who is able to do exceeding abun- 
dantly above all we ask or think," to guard us from 
stumbling and set us before the presence of his glory 
without blemish in exceeding joy, the only God 
our Saviour? How rich is this word of the psalm- 
ist : " Jehovah will give grace and glory ; no good 
thing will he withhold from them that walk up- 
rightly." Ps. 84:11. And this: "They that seek 
Jehovah shall not want any good thing." Ps. 34:10. 
Take this word of Paul to the Philippians, and 
through them to all of like faith : " My God shall 
supply every need of yours according to his riches 
in glory in Christ Jesus." Phil. 4 :19. " His riches 
in glory in Christ Jesus " that is the inexhaustible 
treasure from which all our wants shall be supplied. 
The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews reminds 
us of the promise, " I will in no wise fail thee, neither 
will I in any wise forsake thee." Heb. 13:5. It is 
the word spoken to Moses, to Joshua. Now it is 
spoken to all believers. It is the essence of a 
thousand Old Testament promises gathered into one. 

What great and precious promises are attached to 



132 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

prayer. " Ask, and it shall be given you ; seek, and 
ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto 
you." Matt. 7 :7. " Whatsoever ye shall ask in my 
name, that will I do, that the Father may be glori- 
fied in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my 
name, that will I do." John 14:13, 14. "If ye 
shall ask anything of the Father, he will give it 
you in my name." John 16 :23. The prayer is 
always answered, though the petition may be 
denied. He will give us what we ask; or some- 
thing better. He does exceeding abundantly above 
all we ask or think, never below it. Augustine's 
mother prayed that he might not set sail for Rome, 
yet this journey from which she strove to dis- 
suade him proved to be the way to the Kingdom 
of God : so that he says, " Thou, mysteriously 
counseling and hearing the real purpose of her 
desire, granted not what she then asked, in order 
to make me what she was ever asking." The peti- 
tion was denied, for it was asked in ignorance; the 
prayer was answered, for it was offered in faith and 
love. 

Consider again the promise of the Holy Spirit, the 
fountain of all blessing. " If ye then, being evil, 
know how to give good gifts unto your children, how 
much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy 
Spirit to them that ask him?" Luke 11:13. " It is 
expedient for you that I go away ; for if I go not 
away, the Comforter will not come unto you ; but if 
I go, I will send him unto you." John 16:7. "I 
will pray the Father, and he shall give you another 



THE PROMISES 133 

Comforter, that he may be with you for ever." John 
14 :16. He is the spirit of truth, the spirit of life, the 
spirit of love, the spirit of grace, the spirit of 
promise, in whom we are sealed unto the day of 
redemption. 

The promises stretch beyond this life, and lay 
hold upon eternity. " Godliness is profitable for all 
things, having promise of the life which now is, and 
of that which is to come." I Tim. 4 :8. " In my 
Father's house are many mansions; if it were not 
so, I would have told you ; for I go to prepare a place 
for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I 
come again, and will receive you unto myself, that 
where I am, there ye may be also." John 14:3, 3. 
" This is the promise which he promised us, even the 
life eternal." I John 2 :25. " To him that overcom- 
eth, to him will I give to eat of the tree of life, which 
is in the Paradise of God." Rev. 2 :7. 

Beyond these large and comprehensive promises 
there are specific promises for special needs. The 
general assurances .are broken up into particulars 
that we may cherish no doubt of their extent and 
significance. The promise of all things may seem 
vague ancf indefinite. Is it to be taken literally? A 
host of promises is given so clear, so particular, so 
definite, so precise, that no room remains for doubt. 
" All things are yours," is to be taken in the most 
literal and absolute sense ; for " ye are Christ's ; and 
Christ is God's." 

There are few men who are lifted above the 
pressure of worldly cares, who are not compelled to 



134 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

ask each day, What shall we eat, and what shall we 
drink and wherewithal shall we be clothed? The 
vast majority of mankind always feel the burden of 
anxiety and want. The body clamors to be clothed 
land fed. This is the promise : " Seek ye first his 
kingdom, and his righteousness ; and all these things 
shall be added unto you." Matt. 6:33. Are we 
tempted ? This is the rock on which we stand : " God 
is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted 
above that ye are able ; but will with the temptation 
make also the way of escape, that ye may be able to 
endure it." I Cor. 10 :13. The way of escape comes 
with the temptation. We escape by meeting and 
overcoming in the strength of God. Are we tired, 
not in body, but in spirit? Jesus cried, " Come unto 
me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will 
give you rest." Matt. 11 :28. He had in mind not 
bodily fatigue; a few hours of rest will restore the 
physical strength: but the weariness of the spirit. 
There are times when we feel that we have reached 
the limit of our strength even in the service of God. 
We are sick at heart. We cry, " I can go no farther. 
I can do no more, I can endure no longer." The 
soul is weary even unto death. Then this gracious 
voice brings peace to the heart, rest to the weary 
spirit. The soul is restored, refreshed, renewed in 
him, and with new strength and courage we take up 
again the burden that we thought we could not bear. 
Has death knocked at our door, and stolen from us 
the light of our eyes and the joy of our hearts? Be- 
side the open grave stands Jesus, with these words 



THE PROMISES 135 

of promise on his lips : " I am the resurrection, and 
the life : he that believeth on me, though he die, yet 
shall he live ; and whosoever liveth and believeth on 
me shall never die." John 11:25, 26. Blessed be 
he who in presence of death gives assurance of 
eternal life in him. Do our sins trouble us, disturb 
our peace, fill us with guilty fears? " If we confess 
our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our 
sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 
I John 1 :9. For every event or experience of life 
there is a promise definite and clear, spoken to us 
as directly and personally as if it bore our name. 
Nothing can befall the child of God for which there 
is not a promise prepared and ready. Over against 
every need is set a promise. 

But the promises are not reserved for believers; 
there are promises for the sinner too, else who 
should be saved? Even under the law God is re- 
vealed as plenteous in mercy, pleading with the sin- 
ner, " Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die ?" 
" Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white 
as snow ; though they be red like crimson, they shall 
be as wool." Isa. 1 :18. " Let the wicked forsake 
his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts ; and 
let him return unto Jehovah, and he will have mercy 
upon him ; and to our God, for he will abundantly 
pardon." Isa. 55:7. The gospel is the promise of 
pardon and eternal life to all those who receive the 
Son of God as their Saviour. " By me if any man 
enter in, he shall be saved." John 10 :9. " Him that 
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." John 6 :37. 



136 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

This is the word of him who came not to call the 
" righteous but sinners to repentance " ; who is able 
to save to the uttermost them that draw near unto 
God through him. 

No man can wander so far from God that a prom- 
ise cannot find him. On every forbidden path in 
which he strays a promise meets him, and seeks to 
arrest his steps. There are no depths of sin and 
shame so profound that the promises cannot follow 
him there; and the gracious assurances of pardon 
and peace with God invite him to return. No matter 
how abandoned his life, how stained his record, how 
black his guilt, how hardened his heart, he cannot 
get beyond reach of the promises ; and the promises 
are the keys of the Kingdom. 

(3) Consider the certainty of the promises. 

The word " whereby," with which the text begins, 
points us to the preceding phrase : " Seeing that his 
divine power hath granted unto us all things that 
pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowl- 
edge of him that called us by his own glory and 
virtue; whereby he hath granted us his precious 
and exceeding great promises." His own glory and 
virtue is a comprehensive term for the divine nature. 
God cannot lie, he cannot deny himself. He called 
us by the whole energy of his infinite nature ; and 
by that same infinite and eternal energy the prom- 
ises are given. Every promise rests upon the same 
sure foundation as the redemption of his people. 

As if the word of God might not be deemed 
sufficient, he confirmed it by an oath. The covenant 



THE PROMISES 137 

with Abraham which is the foundation of all the 
promises was thus attested, " For when God made 
promise to Abraham, since he could swear by none 
greater, he sware by himself, saying, Surely blessing 

I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply 
thee. . . . Wherein God, being minded to show 
more abundantly unto the heirs of the promise the 
immutability of his counsel, interposed with an 
oath ; that by two immutable things, in which it is 
impossible for God to lie " his word and his oath 
" we may have a strong encouragement who have 
fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before 
us." Heb. 6:13-18. The promise that his seed 
should be multiplied embraces not merely his natural 
posterity, but yet more the heirs of his faith. They 
shall be as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand 
which is upon the seashore, and in them shall all the 
families of the earth be blessed. 

The promises rest upon the word and the oath of 
God. And they are sealed by the blood of Christ. 
" How many soever be the promises of God, in him " 
Christ " is the yea : wherefore also through him 
is the Amen, unto the glory of God through us." 

II Cor. 1 :20. The assurance of the promises is given 
in Christ, in whom every promise is taken up, con- 
firmed, enriched, fulfilled. And through him, his 
Spirit working in us, is the Amen, the response of 
the believer, accepting the promises and resting upon 
them as the sure foundation of faith and hope. 

Thus the promises are given by God, confirmed by 
his oath, sealed with the blood of his Son. And they 



138 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

are attested by the experience of his people. Joshua 
declared in the hearing of all Israel, " Ye know in all 
your hearts and in all your souls, that not one good 
thing hath failed of all the good things which Je- 
hovah your God spake concerning you ; all are come 
to pass unto you, not one thing hath failed thereof.'* 
Josh. 23:14. And at the dedication of the Temple 
Solomon cried with a loud voice before all the as- 
sembly of Israel, " Blessed be Jehovah, that hath 
given rest unto his people Israel, according to all 
that he promised ; there hath not failed one word of 
all his good promise, which he promised by Moses 
his servant." I Kings 8 :56. 

And this testimony is taken up and repeated by a 
multitude that no man can number in heaven and on 
earth. It is the witness of all who have put their 
faith in the promises. They testify that they have 
tried them, proved them, found them true. They 
are as strong, as stable, as enduring, as the throne 
of God. We may commit ourselves to them with- 
out a fear. No man ever lived who can say, " I 
trusted the promise, and found it false, deceitful, un- 
worthy of my trust." For every promise has beneath 
it the glory and virtue of the Almighty. No man has 
ever found a promise fall below his expectation. 
The fulfillment may outrun the promise, it will never 
come short of it. 

Upon these four great pillars then we may confi- 
dently rest our faith in the promises of Scripture 
the word of God, the oath of God, the sacrifice of 
Christ, the witness of his people. 



THE PROMISES 139 

(4) Consider the purpose of the promises : " That 
through these ye may become partakers of the divine 
nature." That we may become like God is the end 
for which we were created; and it is accomplished 
through the promises. Our relation to God is de- 
termined by them. We are drawn to Christ by his 
promises and by them we are inspired, sustained, 
cheered, strengthened on our heavenward way. 
Paul tells us that we are saved in hope, and hope 
feeds upon the promises. Upon them faith and hope 
alike repose. It is through the promises that God 
ministers unfailing strength and courage to our 
hearts. If they should be withdrawn, the founda- 
tions of our life would be destroyed. We believe, 
we hope, we pray, we strive, we suffer, we live in 
the strength of the promises ; and through them we 
may climb to the heights where God sits enthroned. 
In that glad day when they shall all be fulfilled we 
shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. By 
this golden ladder of the promises shall we ascend 
the skies. In the promises God has come down 
to us, through the promises we shall rise to him. It 
is the promises that open to us the gates of the Ce- 
lestial City, that we may look upon the face of God 
and be changed into the same image. 

So many, so varied, so sure, so mighty are the 
promises of God. What shall we do with them? 

(1) Let us remember the purpose for which they 
are given, to make us partakers of the divine nature, 
to renew us in the image of God. Unless they ac- 
complish this for us they are vain. Let us lay hold 



140 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

upon them with faith, and through them God will 
work mightily in us, regenerating, sanctifying, 
making us like himself. " Having therefore these 
promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all 
defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in 
the fear of God." II Cor. 7:1. The promises in- 
vite us to be holy, even as he is holy, and if we ap- 
propriate them to ourselves they will make us holy, 
through the grace of the Spirit by whom they were 
given. 

(2) Let us acquaint ourselves with the promises, 
so that in every time of need they come instinctively 
to mind. Let us know the Word of God and use it as 
Jesus did. Then when doubt, or trouble, or tempta- 
tion comes, the promise shall be our shield and 
buckler, and our sword. We need no further aid in 
the day of battle than the promises of God. To have 
them at command is to be prepared for whatever life 
may have in store for us ; to be equipped for every 
conflict, prepared for every duty and opportunity 
that the future may disclose. Nothing can take us 
by surprise or catch us off our guard if the promises 
are ours, for in them God has made provision for 
whatever may befall. He knoweth what things we 
have need of before we ask him, iand in his gracious 
promises he has provided in advance for every need. 
" It shall come to pass that, before they call, I will 
answer," said God by the mouth of Isaiah ; and the 
word is fulfilled in his promises that anticipate every 
circumstance iand condition of life. To have them at 
command is to be armed with the resources of om- 



THE PROMISES 141 

nipotence. And all the promises are ours if we are 
Christ's. 

(3) Let us plead the promises in prayer. Moses 
prayed when Jehovah had threatened to cut off his 
people, " Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and 
Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine 
own self " ; and " Jehovah repented of the evil which 
he said he would do unto his people." The prayer 
that rests upon a promise cannot fail. When Israel 
was in captivity, Nehemiah prayed, " Remember, I 
beseech thee, the word that thou commandest thy 
servant Moses " ; and God hearkened and restored 
his people to their own land. Jeremiah was very 
bold and cried, " Do not abhor us, for thy name's 
sake; do not disgrace the throne of thy glory: 
remember, break not thy covenant with us." Jer. 
14 :21. That was bold language even for a prophet, 
the language of a man who was sure of his ground 
because he had taken his stand upon the covenant, 
the promises of God. A man may say anything to 
God when he can rest his words upon a promise. 
We are on praying ground when we plead the prom- 
ises. They are the heart and soul of believing 
prayer. God cannot deny us when we rest our pe- 
titions upon his own word. Then we know we pray 
according to his will. We have the right to come to 
him and say, " O God, I claim the promise." With 
such boldness God is well-pleased ; for it is the bold- 
ness of faith. " This is the boldness that we have 
toward him, that, if we ask anything according to his 



142 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

will, he heareth us," and his will is revealed to us in 
his promises. 

One of the most striking pictures in " Pilgrim's 
Progress " represents Christian and Hopeful in 
Doubting Castle, the prisoners of Giant Despair. 
With his grievous crabtree cudgel he had beaten 
them fearfully, so that they were not able to help 
themselves, or to turn themselves upon the floor. 
There they lay, half dead, without light or food or 
drink, from Wednesday morning till Saturday night. 
About midnight on Saturday they began to pray, and 
continued in prayer till almost break of day. Then 
suddenly Christian broke out in passionate speech. 
" What a fool am I, thus to lie in a stinking dungeon, 
when I may as well walk at liberty. I have a key in 
my bosom, called Promise, that will, I am persuaded, 
open any lock in Doubting Castle." And he tried 
the key, and found that it opened the lock of every 
door and gate that barred their way, and soon they 
walked at liberty. 

No man is a stranger to the prison, the prison of 
doubt, of sorrow, of fear, of sin. We all have need 
at times to say with Paul, " Remember my bonds." 
But there is no prison so strong, no wall so high, no 
gate so barred, that it can long confine him who 
bears in his bosom this key called promise. It will 
open the door of every house of bondage and set the 
captive free. Or we may change the figure and say 
that the promise comes to us as the angel came to 
Peter while he slept between two soldiers in the cell 
of a Roman prison. His chains fell off, the gate flew 



THE PROMISES 143 

open, and he was delivered from the hand of Herod. 
To every man who is bound and imprisoned the 
promise comes to lead him out of his captivity into 
that freedom wherewith Christ sets his people free. 
The promises are the foundation of our faith, the 
strength of our hope, the inspiration of our prayers, 
the joy of our hearts, the ministers of our needs, the 
keys of every prison, and the keys of the Kingdom 
of God. Blessed are all they who put their trust 
in them. 



144 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

XI 
CALLED 

" Called to be Jesus Christ's." 

Rom. 1:6 

" Called " is one of the great words of Scripture. 
In its various uses and applications it tells the whole 
story of the Christian life, its origin, its nature, its 
destiny. 

(1) The origin of the Christian life. How does a 
sinner become a child of God? There are three steps 
or stages in the transformation, (a) There is a di- 
vine choice. In the counsels of eternity this choice 
was made. " He chose us in him before the founda- 
tion of the world." Eph. 1 :4. To those that stand 
before his right hand the Judge shall say, " Come, 
ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom pre- 
pared for you from the foundation of the world." 
Matt. 25:34. (&) There is a divine call. The be- 
liever is chosen in eternity, called in time. " Whom 
he foreordained, them he also called." He " saved 
us and called us with a holy calling, not according 
to our works, but according to his own purpose and 
grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before 
times eternal, but hath now been manifested by the 
appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ." II Tim. 
1:9. The choice and the call are brought together 
in II Thess. 2:13, 14, " God chose you from the be- 
ginning unto salvation in sanctification of the Spirit 
and belief of the truth: whereunto he called you 



CALLED 145 

through our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of 
our Lord Jesus Christ." This call is both outward 
and inward. There is the call of the Word and the 
call of the Spirit. " He called you through our gos- 
pel," the preaching of the Word. " How shall they 
believe in him whom they have not heard ? and how 
shall they hear without a preacher?" Rom. 10:14. 
" So belief cometh of hearing, and hearing by the 
word of Christ." Rom. 10 :17. But before the hear- 
ing may become effectual to salvation, the truth 
must be brought home and applied to the heart by 
the Holy Spirit. " The things of God none knoweth, 
save the Spirit of God." I Cor. 2 ill. Through the 
Spirit comes that effectual call by which the mind is 
enlightened in the knowledge of the truth, and the 
soul is turned to repentance and faith. 

(c) To the divine choice and call there is the re- 
sponse of man, which is faith. This too is of God. 
" By grace have ye been saved through faith ; and 
that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." Eph. 
2 :8. The work of our salvation is all of God. He 
imparts the grace, he inspires the faith. The choice, 
the call, the faith, all are his. He chooses in eternity, 
he calls in time, he sends his Spirit to persuade and 
enable us to embrace Jesus Christ as he is offered to 
us in the gospel. To him be all the praise. 

So clearly does the word " called " bring to light 
the origin of the Christian life. History is a long 
process of divine selection. Abraham was called of 
God by name, and Moses, the priest and the prophet, 
and all the saints of the Old Testament. What was 



146 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

said of the high priest may be said of all who bear 
the Christian name. " No man taketh the honor 
unto himself, but when he is called of God." Heb. 
5:4. To every follower Jesus speaks as to the 
Twelve : " Ye did not choose me, but I chose you." 
Three times in the opening verses of this first chap- 
ter of the Epistle to the Romans, the word " called " 
is found : " Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to 
be an apostle " ; " among whom are ye also, called 
to be Jesus Christ's " ; " to 'all that are in Rome, be- 
loved of God, called to be saints." Our call is as 
direct and personal as theirs, as the call of Paul 
himself. 

(2) The nature of the Christian life. 

To what are we called ? 

(a) We are called to holiness. They who are 
called to be Jesus Christ's are called to be saints. 
The word " saint " is greatly abused. Sometimes it 
is spoken with a sneer, as if it meant sanctimonious 
or Pharisaic or hypocritical. Sometimes it is re- 
served for those who have attained high eminence 
in Christian character or service. They are canon- 
ized by the Church. But the Church cannot make a 
saint ; that is the office of the Holy Spirit. Accord- 
ing to the New Testament every believer is a saint. 
The fundamental idea of holiness is consecration, a 
setting apart to the service of God. Not only per- 
sons, therefore, but places and things may be holy. 
A saint is a person who is separated from the world 
and devoted to God. And as that which is given to 
God must be the best, this consecration involves 



CALLED 147 

moral purity, cleanness of heart and life. Every be- 
liever is a saint, but there are degrees of saintliness. 
It is not in accord with Scripture usage to speaic of 
Saint Matthew, Saint John, Saint Paul, and the title 
is wisely omitted in the Revised Version. They are 
no more saints than the rest of us. More saintly 
indeed, it may well be; but that is another matter. 
There are degrees of faith, but every man who puts 
his faith in the Lord Jesus is a believer; there are 
degrees of holiness, but every believer is a saint. 

Yet it is noteworthy that no man in the New 
Testament calls himself a saint. Paul wrote to the 
Romans, the Corinthians, the Ephesians, and calls 
them saints ; but of himself he said, " I am less than 
the least of all saints." Every man feels that for him 
the name expresses rather a hope, a prophecy, than 
a fact. God gives the name, but he is not worthy of 
it. Holiness is the goal to which he is pressing on, 
but it lies far before him. 

This is the first and great requirement of the 
Christian life. " Without holiness no man shall see 
the Lord." " Be ye holy for I am holy." God does 
not indeed require of us perfect holiness, for that no 
man in this life is able to attain. There are indeed 
those who profess to be perfectly sanctified, but their 
neighbors do not share their faith. But holiness is 
the first law of the Christian life, and we must strive 
with all our strength to keep it. We shall not be 
perfect here but we can ceaselessly press on toward 
perfection, can grow better and stronger with the 
progress of the years, can show God and our fellow 



148 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

men that amid all the faults and infirmities that 
beset us we are praying, toiling, struggling against 
sin, seeking the Kingdom of God and his righteous- 
ness, with earnest purpose to make his will the law 
of our life. This we can do, this we must do, if we 
would not bring reproach upon the sacred name we 
bear. Holiness is the primary and all embracing law 
of the Christian life. He who is not earnestly trying 
to be holy has no right to take upon himself the 
name of Christ. There can be no greater blasphemy, 
no fouler sin, than to drag the name that is above 
every name through the mire of an abandoned life. 
Other men bear the reproach of their own sins ; the 
reproach of the unfaithful disciple is reflected upon 
his Master. Is it not enough that he suffered for us 
on Calvary? Shall^ we crucify him afresh, and put 
him to an open shame? Our sins nailed him to the 
cross, our sins pierce his heart to-day. How often 
when he is asked, "What are these wounds?" he 
must make sad. reply, " Those with which I was 
wounded in the house of my friends." By the holi- 
ness of God, the cross of Christ, the grace of the 
Holy Spirit, we are called to cleanse ourselves from 
all defilement of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holi- 
ness in the fear of God. 

(&) We are called to peace. "Let the peace of 
Christ rule in your hearts, to the which also ye were 
called in one body." Col. 3 :15. The primary refer- 
ence is to concord between Christian brethren. 
They form one body of which Christ is the Head. 
Do the members of the body turn against one an- 



CALLED 149 

other? Do the teeth tear the flesh, and the fingers 
pluck out the eyes? There are those that mutilate 
themselves, but we call them madmen. " No man 
ever hateth his own flesh; but nourisheth it and 
cherisheth it." Yet the members of the body of 
Christ sometimes bite and devour one another. The 
Roman soldiers would not rend his garment; his 
followers rend his body. It is as unnatural for 
Christians to hate one another as it is for the mem- 
bers of the body to be at war among themselves. 
Yet the spirit of jealousy and strife has always found 
a place in the Church. The Lord was compelled to 
rebuke it among his chosen followers. How often 
Paul was forced to deal with it in his letters ; how 
earnestly he warns against it. " There is one body, 
and one Spirit, even as also ye were called in one 
hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one bap- 
tism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and 
through all, and in all." Therefore he bids us, " Keep 
the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace," and the 
charge must be perpetually repeated. There are no 
sadder pages in the history of the Church than those 
that record the unseemly strifes that have marred its 
unity and broken its power. The very night the 
Lord's Supper was ordained, the disciples fell to 
quarreling. And that table which was established to 
be the outward and visible sign of Christian union, 
in obedience to the command, " Drink ye all of it," 
has stood throughout the centuries since like a wall 
of division, parting Catholic from Protestant, 
Anglican from dissenter, Baptist from pedo-Baptist. 



150 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

It is here at the Lord's table that the disciples of 
Christ find themselves most widely sundered, and 
will not hold fellowship together. Every feature of 
the ordinance has been erected into a barrier, the 
quality of the bread, as leavened or unleavened, the 
use of the cup, the nature of the wine, as the fer- 
mented or unfermented juice of the grape, the quali- 
fications required for partaking of the sacrament. 
What Christ gave us as a badge of discipleship and 
a bond of union for all who bear his name, has been 
turned to an ordinance of separation and division 
and often of unseemly strife. " Ye are all one in 
Christ Jesus." Let us love and serve one another 
as brethren. 

But this peace is not concord between brethren 
alone. It has relation not to man only but to God. 
The peace of Christ is that tranquil rest, that calm 
satisfaction of the spirit which we find in him. It 
was his parting gift to his disciples. " Peace I leave 
with you ; my peace I give unto you." " My peace," 
the peace that abode in his own heart, he imparts to 
his disciples. They may rest in him as he found 
rest in God. The way of peace is prayer. " In 
everything by prayer and supplication with thanks- 
giving let your requests be made known unto God. 
And the peace of God, which passeth all understand- 
ing, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in 
Christ Jesus." Phil. 4:6, 7. Prayer is the way of 
peace because it is the way to God. Where he is, 
there is peace. In our relation to one another and 
to God, Christ is our peace. We have in him the 



CALLED 151 

peace of a good conscience, of a divine fellowship, 
of a joyful hope. 

(c) We are called to liberty. " Ye, brethren, were 
called for freedom." Gal. 5 :13. The immediate 
reference is to the bondage of the law, from which 
Christ has delivered us. But there is a larger refer- 
ence, which concerns us more nearly. By nature 
we are in bondage to sin. " Every one that com- 
mitteth sin is the bondservant of sin." John 8:34. 
From this slavery Jesus sets us free. "The truth 
shall make you free." John 8 :33. " If therefore the 
Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." 
John 8 :36. This spiritual freedom is the foundation 
of all civil and religious liberty. The Magna Charta 
is in it, the Reformation is in it, the Declaration of 
Independence is in it, the Emancipation Proclama.- 
tion is in it. This word of our Lord is the root from 
which all liberty has sprung. There can be no true 
freedom to those who are the bond servants of sin. 
And he whom Christ has made free can be no man's 
slave. 

But liberty has its limits and they are clearly 
drawn. It is bounded on one side by law. We are 
apt to set law and liberty over against each other, 
but in fact they are inseparable. Law is the limit 
but it is also the condition of liberty. Anarchy is 
not freedom but tyranny, for it means the unre- 
strained rule of the strong, the supremacy of might. 

The law with drawn sword guards the rights 
and protects the interests of the weak, who without 
it would be the prey of the spoiler. To abolish law 



152 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

would be to substitute the rule of might for the 
rule of right, and freedom would be trampled under 
the foot of oppression. It is only where law pre- 
vails that man may perform his duty and fulfill his 
destiny with the least possible interference from 
without. Independence is an idle dream. Serve sin 
or serve God, there is no alternative. In his service 
is perfect freedom, because only there may man at- 
tain the end for which he was created. 

Peter has a striking phrase, " as free, and not 
using your freedom for a cloak of wickedness, but 
as bondservants of God." I Peter 2 :16. Free, and 
bond servants of God. By nature we are bond ser- 
vants of sin, by grace we become bond servants of 
God, and in his service we find liberty. Only the 
servants of God are free. James speaks of the law 
of liberty, the perfect law. Only through obedience 
to that law may liberty be won. 

Law is to life as the rails to the engine. They con- 
fine it, but they confine it to the path of safety and 
power. The law of God is the track by which the 
life may surely reach its goal. It secures to us the 
only possible freedom, freedom to develop the nature 
God has given us according to his will. 

On the other side liberty is bounded by love. 
" For ye, brethren, were called for freedom ; only 
use not your freedom for an occasion to the flesh, 
but through love be servants one to another." Gal. 
5 :13. We are not to use our freedom for selfish ends, 
but make it the servant of love. We are free that 
we may serve. George Macdonald says, " One of 



CALLED 153 

the grandest things about rights is, that being ours 
we may give them up." " Christ also pleased not 
himself." " I am in the midst of you as he that 
serveth." " Have this mind in you which was also 
in Christ Jesus," who laid aside the glory of God, 
and took on him the form of a bond servant, that in 
love he might minister to men. That spirit was in 
Paul, who held himself always ready to surrender 
liberty at the call of love, to yield his rights if he 
might help a brother, and in love made himself 
servant of all. 

Use your liberty which you have in Christ Jesus 
as bond servants of God, as servants of men. Lib- 
erty is limited by law and love. 

(d) We are called to fellowship with Christ. 
" God is faithful, through whom ye were called into 
the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord." 
I Cor. 1 :9. How close and intimate is that fellow- 
ship Christ himself has taught us. There are three 
names by which he designates the relation between 
himself and his disciples. 

First, he called them at first bond servants, slaves. 
This is the term which is commonly used in the 
parables. He is the Master, the Ruler. They 
belong to him absolutely and forever. This they 
must understand and acknowledge as the basis of 
discipleship. 

Second, as his life drew to a close, he gave them 
another and a dearer name. " No longer do I call 
you servants ; for the servant knoweth not what his 
lord doeth: but I have called you friends." John 



154 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

1.5 :15. When they are prepared to own him as their 
Lord and Master, he calls them friends. Before 
friendship comes self-surrender. Friendship is the 
reward of obedience. " Ye are my friends, if ye do 
the things that I command you." In the Old Testa- 
ment men are the servants of God, only Abraham 
and Moses are called his friends. Now all who ac- 
cept Jesus as their Lord are friends of God through 
him. 

The proof of friendship on the part of the dis- 
ciples is obedience. On the part of Christ it is con- 
fidence and sacrifice. " All things that I heard from 
my Father I have made known unto you." " Greater 
love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his 
life for his friends." He has opened his heart to us, 
he has laid down his life for us. Let us answer his 
friendship with the love of our hearts and the 
obedience of our lives. 

Third, after his resurrection he called them by an- 
other and yet more endearing name. He said to 
Mary as she stood beside the empty tomb on the 
morning of the resurrection, " Go tell my brethren." 
Upon an earlier occasion, indeed, when he was told, 
" Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand with- 
out, seeking to speak to thee," he replied, " Who is 
my mother, and who are my brethren? And he 
stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and 
said, Behold, my mother and my brethren! For 
whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is in 
heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother." 
Matt. 12 :47-50. And in the picture of the last judg- 



CALLED 155 

ment it is by their conduct toward " my brethren " 
that men are judged. But after he rose from the 
dead this name so rarely given before assumes a new 
significance. Its full meaning could not be disclosed 
until in all points, in life and in death, he had been 
made like unto his brethren. Only then could he 
bestow upon them in full measure the gift of his 
Spirit. He is our Brother because he wears our 
nature ; we are his brethren because he imparts to us 
his nature. Through his death and resurrection he 
has given us the right to become children of God. 
As his brethren we are called to fellowship with 
him, in his character, his service, his glory. 

And we must not forget that as we are called to 
fellowship with Christ, we are called to fellowship 
with his sufferings and patience. John writes to the 
seven churches as " your brother and partaker with 
you in the tribulation and kingdom and patience 
which are in Jesus." Rev. 1 :9. Peter tells us, " If, 
when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye shall take it 
patiently, this is acceptable with God. For here- 
unto were ye called : because Christ also suffered for 
you, leaving you an example, that ye should follow 
his steps." I Peter 2 :20, 21. When Christ is com- 
mended to us in the New Testament as an example, 
it is always as a sufferer. If we have no part in his 
sorrow, we shall not taste his joy. " If we endure, 
we shall also reign with him." " If any man will 
come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his 
cross, and follow me." He who would hold fellow- 
ship with Jesus must help him bear the cross. We 



156 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

cannot walk with him if we shun the sorrowful way 
that leads to Calvary. 

All to which we are called we find through fellow- 
ship with him. Are we called to holiness? He 
"was made unto us wisdom from God, and right- 
eousness and sanctification, and redemption." I Cor. 
1 :30. Are we called to peace? " He is our peace." 
" Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace 
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Rom. 
5:1. Peace was the last gift he conferred upon 
his disciples before his death and the first after his 
resurrection. Are we called to liberty? " If there- 
fore the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free 
indeed." 

(3) The destiny of the Christian life. It is repre- 
sented in various ways, which yet are one. Paul 
bids Timothy, " Lay hold on the life eternal, where- 
unto thou wast called." I Tim. 6:12. We are 
called " unto his eternal glory in Christ." I Peter 
5 :10 ; to God's Kingdom and glory." I Thess. 2 :12 ; 
" to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus 
Christ." II Thess. 2 :14 ; the glory of a Christlike 
character, a Christlike service, a Christlike reward. 
This is "the prize of the high calling of God in 
Christ Jesus." 

So glorious is the end set before us, so abundant 
the provision for the way. 

We are called with a high and holy calling, let us 
walk worthily of the calling wherewith we were 
called. We are called to holiness, and the name of 
Christ is named upon us : let us remember that " he 



CALLED 157 

that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to 
walk as he walked." We are called to peace : let us 
dwell in peace with God, our fellow men, and our- 
selves. We are called to liberty : let us stand fast, 
therefore, and suffer ourselves to be entangled in no 
yoke of bondage. We are called to fellowship with 
him. Let us abide in him through faith, obedience, 
prayer. Thus walking worthily, striving to fulfill 
the purpose of our calling, we shall make our calling 
and election sure. Then we shall never stumble, and 
there shall be richly supplied unto us the entrance 
into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Sjaviour 
Jesus Christ. " Faithful is he that calleth you, who 
will also do it," will perform every promise, will 
fulfill every desire of goodness, and every work of 
faith, with power; yea, will do for us exceeding 
abundantly above all we ask or think to the glory of 
his name in Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world 
without end. Amen. 



158 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

XII 
ILLUSIONS 

" Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not 
bread? and your labor for that which satisfieth not?" 

Isa. 55:2 

Life is full of illusions. The soul has its spec- 
tacles, and looks out upon the world through colored 
glasses. No man sees the world just as it is, and no 
two men see it just alike. Every man is in some 
degree the maker of his own world. We cast our 
own shadow on our surroundings. Even in the exact 
sciences allowance must be made for the personal 
equation. Man cannot make of himself a mere ma- 
chine, divest himself of pride and prejudice and pas- 
sion, and dwell in the cold, clear light of pure reason. 
The eye is only the window through which the soul 
looks out. Hamlet projected the shadow of his own 
disordered soul on earth and sea and sky, and nature 
was only the mirror in which he saw the reflection 
of himself. Taine said of Byron, " He dreams of 
himself and sees himself throughout." " What 
shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue." 
" Surely every man walketh in a vain show." To 
see things as they are is a rare achievement, and they 
who look out upon the world with unclouded eyes 
are the leaders of the race Socrates and Bacon and 
Shakspere and above all Jesus. Lord Bacon 
preaches a sermon on I John 5 :21 : " My little 
children guard yourselves from idols," and the ser- 



ILLUSIONS 159 

mon has four heads. " There are four classes of 
idols which beset men's minds. To these, for dis- 
tinction's sake, I have assigned names, calling the 
first class idols of the Tribe ; the second, idols of the 
Cave; the third, idols of the Market Place; the 
fourth, idols of the Theater." These idols are the 
false notions which have taken possession of men's 
minds. Idols of the Tribe are those which belong 
to human nature ; idols of the Cave are those which 
belong to the individual ; idols of the Market Place 
are fashioned by the intercourse and association of 
men with one another. And idols of the Theater are 
shaped by the various dogmas of philosophies, and 
from perverted rules of demonstration. Here is a 
vast and fertile soil for the growth of illusion of 
every sort. 

There are two kinds of illusions that demand our 
thought. The first is the illusions of youth. They 
spring from ignorance and inexperience, and are 
often as beautiful, and as fleeting too, as the pictures 
that the frost pencils on the windowpane. In the 
morning of life the sky is clear, the heart is light, 
the spirit buoyant. Hope is bright and the world is 
dear. Unhappy is the youth who wakes too soon to 
the stern facts of life, before he has grown strong 
enough to face them without a fear. These fond 
dreams of youth may shield us from the rough, hard 
realities of the world about us until we have come 
to the stature and the strength of manhood. Many 
a man feels that he has made a poor exchange in 
parting with the bright illusions of youth for the 



160 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

sordid facts of later years. Wordsworth has painted 
the process of disillusion in colors that can never 
fade: 

Heaven lies about us in our infancy! 
Shades of the prison-house begin to close, 

Upon the growing boy; 
But he beholds the light, and whence it flows, 

He sees it in his joy; 

The Youth, who daily farther from the east 
Must travel, still is nature's priest, 

And by the vision splendid 

Is on his way attended: 
At length the Man perceives it die away, 
And fade into the light of common day. 

There are other illusions that are not innocent or 
helpful, for they spring not from ignorance and in- 
experience, but from moral perversity, the hard 
heart, the stubborn will. They do not vanish with 
increasing years, but grow with our growth and 
strengthen with our strength. Men cling to them 
more tenaciously at fifty than at twenty, and hug 
them to their breasts with trembling fingers on the 
verge of the grave. Time works no cure for illusions 
of this kind, but only deepens and confirms them. A 
man may be more pitiably blind and ignorant at the 
close of life than at its beginning. Then he had at 
least the capacity for vision and knowledge, and now 
even that is gone. Powers unused are lost. He who 
will not, by and by cannot. 

It is to the greatest of these illusions that the 
prophet here refers. All men seek that which shall 



ILLUSIONS 161 

be to the soul wha,t bread is to the body, sustenance, 
strength, satisfaction. They must seek it, for the 
soul, too, has its hunger, an eager, fierce, insatiable 
craving that will not be denied. Hunger of body 
and of soul is the motive power of progress, the driv- 
ing wheel of industry, the spring of civilization. We 
labor primarily that this hungry body may be fed. 
There are appetites of the flesh and of the spirit that 
will not suffer us to rest, but lay upon us the burden 
of incessant toil. As the body of man is akin to the 
brute, he hungers for food ; as his soul was made in 
the divine image, he hungers for God. Always seek- 
ing, never resting, never satisfied, is the tale of 
human life. 

Men seek to satisfy this craving of the spirit apart 
from God, to content a soul that bears the likeness 
of the infinite and the eternal, with the things of 
time and sense that perish in the using. This is the 
saddest and most pitiable illusion that can mock 
the soul. Visions of happiness float before us that 
vanish as we draw near, like the mirage of the desert. 
When a man of wealth was asked why he did not 
retire and enjoy the fruit of his labor, he replied, " I 
purpose to retire when I have enough." " And what 
do you call enough ?" " Enough is a little more." 
So the rich man of the parable communed with him- 
self : " What shall I do, because I have not where to 
bestow my fruits? This will I do, I will pull down 
my barns and build greater ; and there will I bestow 
all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my 
soul, * Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many 



162 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

years, take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry/ " 
The perplexity, the embarrassment of riches, the 
labor are here; the pleasure is deferred. If there is 
any truth which history iand experience unite to pro- 
claim it is that there is no peace for the soul of man 
apart from God. To seek peace elsewhere is to 
" spend money for that which is not bread," and 
" labor for that which satisfieth not." 

What are the needs of the human soul which are 
satisfied in God alone? 

(1) We are confronted by the fact of sin. Sin is 
not merely a theological term, it is a fact of everyday 
experience. We are not what we were made to be 
and meant to be, not what we might be and ought to 
be. The degree in which we fall short is the measure 
of our sin. Consider the guilt of sin. It deserves to 
be punished, it will be punished. There are those 
who tell us that God is too merciful to punish sin. 
But he is punishing it every day. Every pain that 
assails the body, every grief that torments the spirit, 
has come upon us by reason of sin. The world is 
full of the judgments of God upon sin. And if we 
may judge of his attitude toward sin in the time to 
come, from his attitude toward it to-day, he will 
never cease to hate and punish it, as long as it 
endures. 

Consider the uncleanness of sin, how it defiles and 
pollutes the soul, turns the temple of God to an 
abode of evil spirits, infested with a brood of hell- 
born passions. Paul knew the anguish of it, felt that 
he was like a living man chained to a festering 



ILLUSIONS 163 

corpse, and cried, " Wretched man that I am, who 
shall deliver me out of the body of this death ! 

Consider the discord of sin. We are not at peace 
with God. We are not in harmony with our neigh- 
bors. Selfishness prevails where love should reign. 
We are not in harmony with ourselves. So far as 
we know, man is the only being in the universe that 
has a double, a divided nature. All creatures beside 
are either good or bad ; man alone is both good and 
bad. He wallows in the mire, he soars above the 
stars. In Byron's phrase, he is half dust, half deity. 
Two natures are ever at war within him. His heart 
is a battle field where heaven and hell contend. 
When he would do good, evil is present with him. 
This is the conflict which Paul has described with 
tremendous power in the seventh chapter of the 
Epistle to the Romans. What reason have we to 
lift the prayer of the psalmist, " Unite my heart to 
fear thy name "? It is God alone who can overcome 
these discordant powers, and set the divine within 
us upon the throne of life. 

(2) We are confronted again by the fact of eter- 
nity. " He hath set eternity in their heart," says the 
preacher." Eccl. 3 :11. However long our days may 
be upon the earth, we do no more than cross the 
threshold of life. We were made in the image of the 
eternal, and we shall live forever. There are two 
forms in which the thought of immortality presses 
upon us. 

(a) There is the sense of incompleteness. Just as 
we begin to learn how to live, we die. Our life is 



164 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

cut off in the bud. We labor at our calling for 
twenty, forty, fifty years, and feel that we have 
hardly mastered the rudiments of it. We are just 
learning how to use the tool when we are called to 
lay it down. Does God expect us to learn to live in 
these few fleeting years, to exhaust in them the 
powers that bear his likeness? No man can reach 
his full stature in seventy or eighty years. A hun- 
dred years are required to make a tree ; not years or 
centuries but ages are needed to make a man. Just 
as the hand has won a little skill, the arm a little 
strength, the brain a little cunning, the last long 
darkness falls upon us; the night cometh when no 
man can work. The best of us are only bungling 
apprentices at the business of life. 

Those who are most proficient in their chosen 
calling are the first to confess how imperfect is their 
work. And if this be true of the labor of the hand, 
what an immeasurable sense of imperfection and in- 
completeness is borne in upon us when we contem- 
plate our mental and spiritual condition, our char- 
acter. Those who have climbed the highest are the 
first to cry with Paul, " Not that I have already ob- 
tained, or am already made perfect : but I press on." 
They are conscious that they have taken but a single 
step on the pathway of life. 

And with this sense of incompleteness is allied the 
consciousness of power. We are capable of being, of 
doing immeasurably better. Powers begin to stir 
within us like birds just spreading their wings for 
flight. Victor Hugo said, " I have been writing for 



ILLUSIONS 165 

fifty years, poetry, drama, history, fiction, philos- 
ophy, and I have not uttered the thousandth part of 
what is in me." There are times in the lives of all of 
us when we are clothed with unwonted power, rise 
to unwonted heights. If we were always at our best, 
if we could only remain upon the heights to which 
now and then we climb, if we could abide forever in 
our brightest and serenest moods, how much larger 
and richer would the life become ! 

We are conscious of dormant powers, of capacities 
just beginning to awaken. We feel the stirrings of a 
nature struggling to be born. I am ignorant, but I 
am capable of wisdom ; I am weak, but I am capable 
of power ; I am selfish, but I am capable of love ; I 
am sinful, but I am capable of righteousness. There 
are powers within me dimly felt, to which nothing is 
impossible. I am a poor, weak, sinful man, but my 
eyes can behold the face of God. My feet can scale 
the heights on which God sits enthroned. There is 
nothing I cannot do if space be given me. I have 
made poor work of my life thus far, but I know that 
I can do better if I may have another chance. If I 
could be transplanted to a sunnier clime, a more 
fruitful soil, I am persuaded that I should become 
far greater, better than I am. I want to be what 
I know I can be, I want to draw out these latent 
energies, to quicken these powers that are faintly 
stirring within me. The little I have done gives 
me assurance of greater work in the days to come : 
every capacity and power I possess seems to me 
a prophecy and promise of the future, and the cry 



166 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

rises passionately from the depths of my spirit, O 
God, give me time, let me grow. Else life is all 
illusion. 

Here our lives are as roots planted in the cold, 
dark ground. There is life in them, there is capacity 
of growth and beauty and fragrance. But this is 
life's winter. Soon the spring shall come with its 
quickening pulses and summer with its glowing 
suns, and then we shall put forth the flower and the 
fruit. 

(fe) There is the sense of injustice. All is not right 
with the world. It is full of disorder, cruelty, in- 
justice, oppression. Since history began it has been 
the theater of strife. The strong play upon the weak. 
Bismarck compared Eurqpe to a fishpond : Eat or be 
eaten is the law. How often has brute force tri- 
umphed over justice, and might trampled right be- 
neath its feet ! What page of history is not soiled by 
sin, stained with tears and blood? Throughout all 
their generations men have heaped iniquity upon 
iniquity until the awful weight were sufficient, but 
for the infinite mercy of God, to sink the earth be- 
neath unfathomable seas of judgment. There is no 
earnest man upon whose heart these thoughts do not 
weigh heayily. Philosophy and theology find it one 
of their most arduous tasks to justify the ways of 
God to man. If he is almighty why does he allow 
unrighteousness to prevail ? How can he look down 
upon the sufferings and distresses of men, and not 
stretch forth a hand to help them? How can he re- 
strain himself in the presence of cruelty that curses 



ILLUSIONS 167 

the earth ? How can God endure the horrors of our 
time, when he has only to make bare his arm, and 
establish the reign of righteousness and peace? If 
God be holy, how can he allow iniquity to triumph ? 
Whether he cannot or will not interpose, in either 
case how shall we recognize in him a God worthy of 
our homage and our trust? In the face of these 
questions there are those who conceive of him as a 
celestial figurehead, of whom it may be said as of 
the kings of France, He reigns, but does not govern. 
Others deny his existence outright, affirming that if 
there were a God the world could not present the 
spectacle which it presents to-day. And there are 
even those who believe in God as the Scripture re- 
veals him, yet maintain that not God but Satan is 
the real ruler of the world to-day. Sometime he will 
take again the scepter, but now he suffers Satan to 
work his will. 

Many are the answers that men have returned to 
the question, " Why does a holy God permit sin to 
do its deadly work ?" To that question, if the pres- 
ent life were all, no answ*er could be given. If the 
life of man is bounded by the visible horizon, if this 
is the only home that he shall ever know, if there is 
nothing beyond the confines of earth and time, how 
shall we vindicate the character of God against those 
who say, He is blind or careless or impotent? If 
death ends all, life is a riddle without an answer. 

But the time is coming, it must come if God is 
just, when men shall receive the due recompense of 
their deeds; when equal and impartial justice shall 



168 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

be rendered to every one of us. This is the time of 
probation, of testing ; now we do our work, there we 
shall receive our reward according to that we have 
done, whether it be good or evil. After the day's 
work is over, the laborers are summoned to receive 
their wages. We can understand this present life 
only as we view it in the light of eternity. Of itself 
it is poor, weak, broken, imperfect, a jumble of be- 
ginnings that have no end, foundations on which 
nothing is built, prayers without answers, strivings 
without results, labors without rewards. But this 
life is only the first step upon the path of immor- 
tality. Out of this scene of confusion and strife and 
incompleteness and injustice we pass through the 
gate of death into the Kingdom where justice and 
love and righteousness prevail, and eternity is given 
for our growth in the likeness of God. Forever and 
forever we shall increase in knowledge, in grace and 
power, ever taking upon us more of the blessed like- 
ness of our Lord. 

(3) There is the filial instinct. Augustine clothed 
the ultimate truth in its final form : " Thou hast made 
us for thyself, and our hearts are restless until they 
find rest in thee." " My soul thirsteth for God, for 
the living God." " My soul thirsteth for thee, my 
flesh longeth for thee, in a dry and weary land, where 
no water is." This is the root of our restlessness, 
our discontent. The soul hungers for God and it 
tries to satisfy its cravings through the appetites and 
lusts of the flesh. We say, Soul, take thine ease, eat, 
drink, be merry. But God alone is the food of the 



ILLUSIONS 169 

soul. We shall never be satisfied until we find our 
Father. The soul cries out for truth, and men spread 
before it a sumptuous table and bid it feast and be 
content ; it cries out for righteousness and they build 
for it a spacious dwelling, furnished with all that 
may charm the eye ; it cries out for God, the living 
God, and they show it a comfortable balance in the 
bank. And then they marvel that it will not ease 
its cravings and its cries. These things can no more 
satisfy the spirit than a glass of wine can allay the 
thirst for knowledge. Pour the world into the soul, 
and it is empty still. God alone can fill it. It is the 
universal verdict of history and experience that man 
can find no satisfaction short of God. 

There is a familiar story of a ship that lay be- 
calmed upon a tropic sea. The crew were in dire 
distress. Their water was exhausted. The sun 
darted down his arrows of fire upon them. They 
were perishing of thirst. In the hour of their extrem- 
ity they saw far off on the distant horizon the smoke 
of a steamer. They fixed their eyes upon it as their 
only hope. Slowly, very slowly it seemed to them, 
the vessel came into sight, drew nearer and nearer, 
until at length with parched throats 'and cracked lips 
they prayed, " Water, water, give us water or we 
die." And the answer came back : " Draw and drink. 
You are on the bosom of the Amazon." There are 
men to-day who are dying of thirst on the great river 
of God's love. There is grace sufficient for all their 
needs ; and they have only to take it as it is freely 
offered to them in Christ Jesus. But in their blind- 



170 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

ness and their sins they turn away and will not drink 
and live. Let us hear the invitation : " Wherefore do 
ye spend money for that which is not bread? and 
your labor for that which satisfieth not? hearken 
diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, 
and let your soul delight itself in fatness." Let us 
put away every illusion, every idle dream. The soul 
is not mocked. It will never cease to strive and cry 
until it has laid hold upon the living God. 



DEATH AND LIFE 171 

XIII 
DEATH AND LIFE 

" For I through the law died unto the law, that I might 
live unto God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is 
no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life 
which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which 
is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up 
for me." 

Gal. 2:19, 20 

The truth owes much under God to its enemies. 
Many of the noblest words of our Lord were drawn 
out by the unbelief or malice of the Jews. The 
creeds of the Church are the fruit of controversy. 
In presence of error the Church is forced to define 
and establish the truth. False teachers in Galatia 
assailed Paul's character, impugned his motives, 
denied the gospel that he preached, seeking to sub- 
stitute the law of Moses for the grace of Christ. 
They drew many after them. " O, foolish Galatians, 
who did bewitch you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ 
was openly set forth crucified?" " I marvel that ye 
are so quickly removing from him that called you in 
the grace of Christ unto a different gospel." This 
letter Paul wrote to vindicate himself and to estab- 
lish the truth of his message. It is the Magna Charta, 
the Declaration of Independence, of the Christian 
Church, proclaiming its emancipation from the yoke 
of the law, and its liberty in Christ Jesus. " For 
freedom did Christ set us free: stand fast therefore, 
and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage." 

The letter is in great part personal. No man ever 



172 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

wrote of himself more freely and fully than Paul, 
while no man is less open to the charge of egotism. 
He is concerned about his reputation, not for his 
own sake, but for the sake of the gospel which he 
preached. If it could be shown that his motives 
were selfish, the power of his message would be im- 
paired. The letter tells therefore the story of his 
life, not merely of its outward course iand activity 
but of its inward movement and disposition. He 
opens his heart, unveils his inmost feelings, desires, 
purposes ; and writes his spiritual autobiography in 
a sentence. He always speaks of himself frankly, 
humbly. ^Before his conversion he was the chief of 
sinners; now he is less than the least of all saints. 
Here he tells us of the change that was wrought in 
him when he passed from death to life, how it was 
effected, and how Christ became all in all to him. 

The story is comprehended in four great words. 

(1) Death. He had lived the life of a Pharisee, a 
moralist. He had been the leader of the Jewish 
church against the Christian faith. As he was on his 
way to Damascus, breathing threatening and slaugh- 
ter against the disciples of Christ, the risen Lord 
met him on the way in the white heat of his rage. 
In that instant the old life came to a sudden end. 
Saul of Tarsus died. 

In what sense? Let him speak for himself. He 
died to the law. He had been trusting in the law 
for salvation, was striving to work out a righteous- 
ness of his own through obedience to the law that 
should be acceptable to God But he found the way 



DEATH AND LIFE 173 

of the law was not the way of life. The law com- 
mands, the law condemns, the law cannot save. He 
could not find the peace of mind that he craved 
through obedience to the law. His own experience 
of the law proved that the law had no power to re- 
deem from sin, and establish the heart in righteous- 
ness. The law itself bore witness in his experience 
to its own insufficiency. 

But if this were all, he would have gone on the 
same way to the end. He would have fancied that 
the law failed to bring peace to his troubled spirit 
because he had not kept its commandments with 
sufficient zeal. He would have laid upon himself 
new burdens, plied the lash of conscience with re- 
doubled vigor. The law might not yield the satis- 
faction that he sought, but the remedy would be 
more law. And in the vain endeavor to meet God's 
demands by his own obedience his life would have 
been spent. But Christ appeared to him. In that 
moment he caught a vision of another and better 
way than the way of the law. Then the truth was 
borne in upon his soul that what the law could'not 
do in that it was weak through the flesh, God had 
wrought by sending his own Son. This gospel of 
free grace was not the product of reflection or ex- 
perience; it was a revelation. The law had been 
given to lead men to Christ, he had put it in place 
of Christ. Now he saw him, recognized his Saviour 
and his Lord, and cried, " O Christ, take my sins' 
and nail them to thy cross. Let me hang there with 
thee, that I may die unto sin." 



174 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

In that hour through the law he died unto the law, 
through the cross he died unto sin. 

Not that sin ceased to tempt, to vex, to defile. In 
the seventh chapter of the Epistle to the Romans he 
has portrayed with tremendous power the struggle 
that never ceased to rage within him. How pathetic 
is the cry : " For the good which I would I do not : 
but the evil which I would not, that I practise. But 
if what I would not, that I do, it is no more I that 
do it, but sin which dwelleth in me." What then? 
What change took place in Paul's relation to sin 
when he turned to Christ? How does Paul the 
apostle differ from Saul the Pharisee? The moment 
he laid hold on Christ as his Saviour sin ceased to 
condemn. " There is therefore now no condemna- 
tion to them that are in Christ Jesus." By nature a 
child of wrath, even as others, by grace he became a 
child of God. The curse of the law was lifted, for it 
was laid upon him who became a curse for us, bear- 
ing our sins in his own body on the tree. Christ has 
made atonement for his sin and tiaken the guilt, the 
penalty of it, upon himself. He is no longer under 
the condemnation of sin, for the law of the Spirit of 
life in Christ Jesus has made him free from the law 
of sin and of death. 

Not only did sin cease to condemn, but it ceased 
to control. " It is no more I that do it, but sin 
which dwelleth in me." Once sin and I worked to- 
gether, now there is war between us. No longer is 
sin lord of my life, but Christ. Sin is an intruder, 
an alien. I am getting the mastery of it, and shall 



DEATH AND LIFE 175 

one day trample it beneath my feet and cast it out. 
It was the master whom he obeyed, now it is the 
enemy whom he fights. When Jesus healed the de- 
moniac with the command, " Come out of him," the 
evil spirit tore him, and threw him to the ground, 
and he wallowed foaming. The demon did all the 
harm he could, but he came out. The old man of sin 
dies hard, but he is dying. Sin is wounded unto 
death ; the sins of the believer are the dying strug- 
gles of the old man of sin. It was well said by an 
old divine, " The believer is justified, that sin may 
not condemn, the believer is sanctified, that sin may 
not reign ; the believer is glorified, that sin may not 
be." Those are the steps by which we climb to 
heaven. 

(2) Life. Saul is dead, Paul is born. The old 
man is crucified with Christ, the new man rises with 
him to endless life. A devout Mohammedan prayed, 
" Give me a death in which there is no life, then a 
life in which there is no death." A wonderful 
prayer that might have come from the heart of Paul ; 
and it is answered in Christ. In him Saul died to 
sin, in him he entered upon the life that shall never 
end. The self-life died, the Christ life was born. 

Let us mark precisely the nature of the change 
that passed upon him as he began the new life in 
Christ. 

It was a change from self-righteousness to the 
righteousness of God. He describes it in Phil. 3 :9 : 
" Mot having a righteousness of mine own, even that 
which is of the law, but that which is through faith 



176 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by 
faith." He is no longer laboriously and painfully 
striving to win the favor of God by the works of his 
hands ; he has laid hold freely and joyously upon the 
grace proffered to him in Christ Jesus. " I am no 
longer clothed in righteousness of my own devising, 
a thing of shreds and patches, filthy rags in the sight 
of heaven ; but I am arrayed in the perfect robe of 
the righteousness of Christ, the Lamb of God offered 
for the sin of the world." 

It was a change from hatred to love. Before 
Christ appeared to him, he was filled with rage 
against those who had never done him harm. " I 
persecuted this Way unto the death " ; " being ex- 
ceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even 
unto foreign cities." He thought that he was doing 
God service by putting his children to death. The 
spirit that dominated him was fanatical hatred of 
this heretical sect that recognized in Jesus of Naza- 
reth the Messiah. Christ laid hold upon him in the 
heat and fury of his madness, and turned him from 
hate to love. Henceforth he loved and served those 
who hated him, reviled him, persecuted him, sought 
his life. The more they hated him the more he loved 
them. " I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my con- 
science bearing witness with me in the Holy Spirit, 
that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my 
heart. For I could wish that I myself were ana- 
thema from Christ for my brethren's sake, my kins- 
men according to the flesh." What had they done 
for him, these kinsmen for whom he would make the 



DEATH AND LIFE 177 

supreme sacrifice ? They had followed him with un- 
relenting hate through all his wanderings, had 
sought to blacken his character, destroy his work, 
take away his life. Five times they laid upon him 
forty stripes save one; at Antioch they stoned him, 
and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he 
was dead. And in return for their hatred he gave 
them love without measure, for their persecution a 
ministry of untiring and unsparing service. Christ 
entered his heart, and love became the ruling passion 
of his life. 

And again there was a change from the purpose 
of destruction to the purpose of salvation. The 
whole energy of his fiery nature had been thrown 
into the work of persecution ; now it is thrown into 
the work of redemption. Hate destroys, love builds 
up, constructs. Hate accomplishes nothing, can only 
tear down. Love is the great builder. And through- 
out the remaining years of his life he gave himself 
with unmeasured devotion to the task of preaching 
in love the faith which he once destroyed, making 
himself all things to all men, that he might by all 
means save some. 

We may sum up the nature of the change that 
passed upon Paul in two words of his own. Before 
his conversion, " I verily thought with myself that I 
ought to do many things contrary to the name of 
Jesus of Nazareth." There speaks the Pharisee : " I 
thought." Immediately after his conversion he said, 
"What shall I do, Lord?" Then he took counsel 
with himself, now he seeks to know the will of 



178 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

Christ. " I " thought ; what wilt " thou " have me 
to do? The center of gravity of his life is shifted 
from self to Christ. Not his will but Christ's will is 
law. Christ is Lord, not I. In the old life he did 
what he thought he ought, now he does what Christ 
commands. " It is no longer I that live, but Christ 
liveth in me." Christ is my life. He has learned 
from his Master to say, " Not my will, but thine, 
be done." 

(3) Faith. How is Paul united to Christ so that 
he may say, "To me to live is Christ?" " It is no 
longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me " Christ 
dwells in his heart by faith, so that the life which he 
now lives in the flesh he lives in faith, the faith which 
is in the Son of God. Through faith he surrenders 
himself to Christ, so that he and Christ are one. 
Faith opens the door of the heart that Christ may 
enter. Faith lays hold of Christ, and what is more 
important it gives Christ something to lay hold of. 
" Without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing 
unto him," for faith is the soul's contact with God. 
Where faith is wanting, the soul is closed against 
him. By nature we are estranged from God. Grace 
comes to reconcile. Faith is man's response to 
grace. Grace is the hand that God reaches down 
from iabove; faith is the hand that man reaches up 
from below. When the hand of grace and the hand 
of faith clasp each other, the work of reconciliation 
is accomplished. 

Faith issues of necessity in obedience. As we 
trust we follow. A woman once said to me, " I know 



DEATH AND LIFE 179 

what faith in God is from my faith in my physician." 
It was through faith that Christ entered the heart 
of Paul, and established his Kingdom there. The 
power of faith lies not in its own worth or energy, 
but in its object. Salvation does not depend upon 
the weakness of faith but upon the might of grace. 
Feeble faith may lay hold upon a strong Saviour. 
Salvation is a gift, faith receives it. Grace is the 
hand that gives ; faith is the hand that takes. It is 
the value of faith that it opens the way for grace, 
that the spirit may be brought into submission to 
the will of Christ. It is through faith that Paul has 
entered into this relation of loving intimacy and un- 
measured devotion to his Lord. 

(4) Love. What is the ground of faith, the reason 
for this surrender of self to the will of another? 
Why should Paul, strong man that he was, yield 
himself without reserve to the will of Christ, rejoic- 
ing in the loss of all things if he might win his favor? 
This is his answer, " Because he loved me and gave 
himself up for me." My faith rests upon his love, 
his sacrifice. I believe in him because he died for 
me. I love him because he first loved me. He gave 
himself for me, I give myself to him. He laid down 
his life for me, and I count not my life dear to my- 
self if only I may do his will. 

He loved " me," he gave himself up for " me." 
.That is appropriating faith. The love that embraces 
all the world, the sacrifice offered for all the world, 
is mine. The Lamb of God that taketh away the 
sin of the world is " my " Saviour. Me, me he loved ; 



180 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

for me, for me he died. This is the faith that avails, 
the faith that takes to itself the sacrifice that is 
offered for all the world, and says, It is mine. 

This is the love of which Paul said, " The love of 
Christ constraineth us." He did not mean our love 
to him, poor, feeble, fickle, flickering flame, burning 
dimly at its best, almost extinguished at times by 
the gusts of passion and the blasts of temptation ; 
but his love to us, fed from the heart of God, burn- 
ing ever with a pure and steady flame. From 
eternity he loved us, and he shall never cease to love. 
This is the love which passeth knowledge. The 
night before he suffered Jesus told his disciples of 
his love to them. " Having loved his own that were 
in the world, he loved them unto the end." But 
how shall he express the love that fills his heart and 
is about to lead him to the cross? By what figures 
shall he set it forth, by what analogies represent it? 
Shall he speak of the love of father, mother, hus- 
band? All these figures, drawn from the highest and 
holiest relations of human life, were exhausted under 
the old covenant. " Like as a father pitieth his 
children, so Jehovah pitieth them that fear him." 
" As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I 
comfort you." " Thy Maker is thy husband." 
These are gracious words, beautiful and tender, and 
they speak to the heart with comforting power. 
But the love of God is about to manifest itself in a 
way unknown before, the way of sacrifice. The 
world has seen God upon the throne, it is about to 
see God upon the cross. This new manifestation of 



DEATH AND LIFE) 181 

love, how shall it be clothed in speech? Our Lord 
can find nothing on earth that may fitly image the 
tenderness of this love which is on the way to 
Calvary. He must ascend to heaven and search the 
heart of God. " Even as the Father hath loved me, 
I also have loved you." Only the love of God, in- 
finite and eternal, the love of the Father for the 
Son, may worthily represent the love that Christ 
bears to his own. 

This love, says Paul, this love of Christ to me, is 
the motive power of my life. I live and labor con- 
tinually in the thought of it. I feel the impulse of it 
ever urging me on to service and sacrifice for him. 
" For the love of Christ constraineth us ; because 
we thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all 
died ; and he died for all, that they that live should 
no longer live unto themselves, but unto him who 
for their sakes died and rose again." II Cor. 
5:14, 15. He died to redeem us to himself that 
we should be altogether his. His life was our ran- 
som. Not with corruptible things as silver and gold, 
he bought us, but with his own blood. Therefore we 
are not our own, for we were bought with a price. 
This is the thought that is always driving Paul to 
new labors I do not belong to myself but to Christ. 
He loved me, he died for me. I iam his. Let me 
answer his love with my love, his sacrifice for me 
with my sacrifice for him, and make my life bear the 
likeness of his life. 

This is the story of Paul's life, as we gather it 
from his own lips. He is dead unto the law and 



182 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ through faith, 
faith that rests upon the love and sacrifice of Christ. 
" By the grace of God I am what I am." That grace 
was extended to him in the person of the Son of 
God, and appropriated by faith. Through faith he 
has entered into such fellowship of life with Christ, 
that they are one. He has not ceased to be himself, 
rather he has found his true self in Christ, has be- 
come the man he was made to be and meant to be. 
But they are one in that his will is entirely submis- 
sive to the will of Christ, and that Christ is Lord of 
his life in every sphere. Christ's will is his will, for 
he seeks always to be well-pleasing to him. Christ 
rules his spirit, guides his thoughts, directs his steps, 
controls his energies, sweetly constraining him by 
the impulse of his redeeming love. 

As this was the story of Paul's life, so it should be 
the story of our lives. If any of us are still under 
the curse and condemnation of sin, the way of escape 
is open. Let Christ take your sins and nail them to 
his cross. There only will you find forgiveness, 
peace of conscience, the favor of God, the hope of 
life eternal. Nowhere in all the wide universe save 
in the cross of Calvary may man make his peace with 
God. Say with Paul, He " loved me, he gave him- 
self up for me." Lay hold upon him with the power 
of an appropriating faith, claim for yourself the sal- 
vation provided for all mankind, and your sins will 
be forgiven you for his name's sake. 

If we have taken Christ as our Saviour the way of 
duty and of life is plain. Surrender yourself to him 



DEATH AND LIFE 183 

without reserve. L,ive in constant fellowship with 
him through faith under the power of his love. In 
him death yields to life, life inspired by faith and 
rooted and grounded in love. Then shall you be 
filled unto all the fullness of God. 



184 THE WALL AND THE GATES 




"The church, which is his body, the fulness of him that 
filleth all in all." 

Eph. 1 :22, 23 

The theme of this epistle is the Church, as the 
theme of the Colossians is the Christ, and the theme 
of the Philippians is the Christian. Our Lord rarely 
spoke of the Church directly. Twice only did he 
use the word ; once when he said to Peter, " Upon 
this rock I will build my church " ; and again when 
he told his disciples how to deal with a brother who 
had offended : " First speak to him alone ; if he will 
not hear, take with you two or three witnesses ; if 
he refuse to hear them, tell it to the church." But 
though he rarely referred to the Church by name, 
he made provision for its constitution and its needs, 
ordaining the Twelve to be its leaders, and the sacra- 
ments to be a badge of discipleship and a bond of 
union as well as a means of grace. The doctrine of 
the Church we owe to Paul with his genius for sys- 
tem and organization. And in this epistle in par- 
ticular he treats of the nature and the functions of 
the Church, and sets forth the principles by which it 
must be inspired, directed, and controlled. 

There are four figures that he employs to represent 
the Church : 

(1) It is " the pillar and ground of the truth." I 
Tim. 3 :15. To the Jews were committed the oracles 
of God under the old covenant; the Christian 



THE CHURCH 185 

Church is intrusted with the gospel. By the Church 
the knowledge of the truth is preserved and pro- 
claimed. The truth is conveyed to men and com- 
mended to men by the witness of the Church. 
"How shall they hear without a preacher? And 
how shall they preach, except they be sent?" To 
preach, to send, is the office of the Church. Christ 
has two living witnesses, his Spirit and his Church. 
The sacrifice of Calvary would be of no avail if it 
were not made known by the Church, and the bene- 
fits of it applied by the Spirit. 

(2) It is the house or temple of God. This is a 
familiar New Testament figure, especially in the 
epistles of Paul. The individual believer is a temple, 
as the Holy Spirit dwells within him. " Know ye 
not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?" 
I Cor. 6:19. In a larger sense the whole body of 
believers is the temple of God, in which each indi- 
vidual believer is a living stone. " Know ye not that 
ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God 
dwelleth in you?" I Cor. 3 :16. " We are a temple 
of the living God." II Cor. 6 :16. " Ye are fellow- 
citizens with the saints, and of the household of God, 
being built upon the foundation of the apostles and 
prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief corner 
stone; in whom each several building, fitly framed 
together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord ; in 
whom ye also are builded together for a habitation 
of God in the Spirit." Eph. 2 :19-22. " Ye also, as 
living stones, are built up a spiritual house." I 
Peter 2 :5. 



186 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

(3) The Church is the bride of Christ, the Lamb's 
wife. In the fifth chapter of this letter, after treating 
of marriage, Paul adds, " This mystery is great : but 
I speak in regard of Christ and of the church." The 
figure is borrowed from the Old Testament, where 
God is represented sometimes as the Father and 
sometimes as the Husband of Israel. Jehovah is 
represented as a jealous God, and idolatry is adult- 
ery. Yet this relation which God in the old economy 
guards with such jealous care, is transferred to 
Christ under the gospel. He is now the husband of 
God's people. What stronger evidence of his deity 
could be given? Paul learned this from Jesus, who 
called himself the bridegroom, and his people the 
bride. 

(4) The Church is the body of Christ, as the text 
declares. The Church is the witness of Christ, the 
temple of Christ, the bride of Christ, the body of 
Christ, that he may be all in all. 

Jesus fulfilled his earthly ministry in a body of 
flesh and blood. He was subject to the same limita- 
tions of space and time that shut us in. He moved 
in a narrow sphere. Once only during the years of 
his ministry is it recorded that he set foot beyond 
the bounds of Palestine. The fruits of his immediate 
personal ministry were of necessity meager when 
compared with the breadth of his mission. It is 
probable that Peter won more souls to the Kingdom 
of God by a single sermon on the Day of Pentecost 
than Jesus gained in three years of constant labor. 

When he ascended to the right hand of the Father, 



THE CHURCH 187 

and would enter upon his world-wide ministry, he 
took to himself a new body, a spiritual body, which 
is his Church, the whole company of them that love 
his name and do his will. Through this body he 
carries on his work, and performs his ministry, ful- 
filling the promise, " He that believeth on me, the 
works that I do shall he do also ; and greater works 
than these shall he do; because I go unto the 
Father." His work in the body of the flesh was con- 
fined to a little strip of country, and bounded by the 
space of three years ; the work that he carries on 
through his spiritual body is broad as the world, and 
shall continue until the glorious consummation of 
his Kingdom. 

The Church is related to Christ as the body to the 
soul, and in this representation two great truths are 
involved. 

(1) Christ is the life of the Church, as the soul is 
the life of the body. The body has no power, no will, 
no life of its own. It is simply a mass of clay that 
falls apart when the spirit is withdrawn. The 
Church depends upon Christ for its life as absolutely 
as the body on the soul. Without him there may be 
a society, an organization ; there is no church. The 
Church is of him and for him and in him. It is his 
fulness. There are two possible interpretations of 
the phrase: (a) the Church fills up, completes, the 
purpose and the work of Christ. That is true. 
Through the Church is Christ's mission in the world 
fulfilled. He completes through his spiritual body 
what he began in the body of his flesh. But the 



188 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

second interpretation is better, (b) The Church is 
filled by Christ, is the receptacle of his grace and 
power. He pours himself in all the plenitude of his 
wisdom, power, and love into the Church, and fills it 
with his own life. Then indeed do men have life, and 
have it abundantly. There is no limit to his gift of 
himself but the capacity of the Church to receive. 

Fulness is one of the great words of the Scripture. 
There <are four passages which taken together may 
open to us the riches of truth which it contains. 
First, " In him dwelleth all the fulness of the God- 
head bodily." Col. 2 :9. Into the incarnate Son, God 
pours himself in all the fulness of his divine nature. 
There is nothing in Christ that is not in God ; there 
is nothing in God that is not essentially in Christ. 
His human nature is filled and flooded with the 
divine. " He that hath seen me hath seen the 
Father." " I and the Father are one." Second, The 
Church is the fullness of Christ, as we read in the 
text. As Christ is the fulness of God, the Church is 
the fulness of Christ. God pours the fulness of his 
life into the Son, and the Son in turn pours the ful- 
ness of his life into the Church. Of all that he has 
received from the Father he withholds nothing from 
his people. All that he has is theirs. " All things 
are yours . . . and ye are Christ's; and Christ is 
God's." What is there that Christ does not share 
with us? Is it knowledge? " All things that I heard 
from my Father I have made known unto you." Is 
it authority ? " As the Father hath sent me, even so 
send I you." Is it power? "All things are pos- 



THE CHURCH 189 

sible to him that believeth." Is it holiness? "For 
their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves 
also may be sanctified in truth." Is it peace? 
" Peace I leave with you ; my peace I give unto you." 
Is it joy? " These things have I spoken unto you, 
that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may 
be made full." Is it love ? " Even as the Father hath 
loved me, I also have loved you." Is it glory. " The 
glory which thou hast given me I have given unto 
them." Even the throne that he purchased at such 
infinite cost he does not withhold from his people. 
" He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down 
with me in my throne, as I also overcame, and sat 
down with my Father in his throne." Through 
Christ the wisdom, the power, the grace of God flow 
without ceasing into the life of the Church. Paul 
sums it all up in a single phrase : " He called you 
through our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of 
our Lord Jesus Christ." II Thess. 2 :14. His glory, 
the fulness of his divine perfections, he imparts to 
his people, whom he hath redeemed with his own 
blood that they should show forth his praise. As on 
the cross of Calvary he gave himself for them, so 
now upon his throne he gives himself to them in all 
the plenitude of his grace and glory. Third, " Of his 
fulness we all received, and grace for grace." John 
1 :16. He imparts himself to the Church through its 
individual members. He is in the Church as he is in 
the hearts of men. He dwelleth not in temples made 
with hands, but only in the spirits that he hath 
quickened with his own breath. The heart of man is 



190 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

the home of God. " In him dwelleth all the fulness 
of the Godhead bodily, and in him ye are made full." 
Col. 2:9, 10. He is filled with God, you are filled 
with him. 

Fourth, Paul prays for the Ephesians that Christ 
may dwell in their hearts through faith, " that ye, 
being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to 
apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and 
length and height and depth, and to know the love of 
Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may be 
filled unto all the fulness of God." Eph. 3:17-19. 
The fulness of God, that is the end, the goal of the 
Christian life, to be holy as he is holy, perfect as he 
is perfect. Man may reflect the likeness of God as 
the dewdrop may bear in its bosom the image of the 
full-orbed sun. The work of the Church will not be 
complete " till we all attain unto the unity of the 
faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto 
a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of 
the fulness of Christ." Eph. 4 :13. 

(2) The Church is the organ and instrument of 
Christ, as the body is the organ and instrument of 
the soul. If the body without the soul is dead, the 
soul without the body is impotent. We cannot work 
without the hand, or speak without the tongue, or see 
or hear without the eye or the ear, or think without 
the brain. For all practical purposes in the present 
life the soul is dependent upon the body. After all 
the labors of learned societies for psychical research 
it has not been shown that disembodied spirits play 
an appreciable part in the present order of the world. 



THE CHURCH 191 

Only through the body of flesh may the spirit ex- 
press itself, accomplish its work, effect its purposes. 

Of course we must not press the analogy too far. 
Christ is not dependent upon his Church in the same 
sense as the soul depends upon the body. He could 
do without us, if he would. The relation between 
us he has himself established, and he could have es- 
tablished it upon different principles. But he does 
not choose to do without us. He may work, at times 
he does work, directly through his Spirit. But 
ordinarily he chooses to work through his Church, 
which is his body. Through his Church he preaches 
the gospel, proclaims the Kingdom, draws men to 
himself. The service of the Church is essential to 
the fulfilment of his ministry. " Without me ye can 
do nothing," he said. And he says also, though the 
words must not be taken in the same absolute sense, 
" Without you I will do nothing." The Church is 
his body, and through his body he carries on his 
work. 

There are certain characteristics of the body of 
Christ which he wore during his life on earth that 
must be reproduced in his spiritual body, the Church. 

(a) Unity. The body is one because it is ani- 
mated by one spirit. Every organ and member 
obeys one will. The unity resides in the spirit alone. 
When the soul leaves the body it crumbles to dust. 
There is nothing to hold it together except the life 
of the spirit. 

The Church is one. If there is one head there can 
be only one body. In the divine purpose and in its 



192 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

essential nature the Church in all its parts through- 
out the world is one. But this unity is overlaid and 
obscured and often denied. Our Lord prayed that 
all believers may be one, may all come to recognize 
the common life which they have in him. The unity 
for which he prayed was the union in spirit and life 
of all those who confess his name, a union that shall 
be manifested through brotherly love. " By this 
shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye 
have love one to another." Whether this brotherly 
spirit shall issue in course of time in unity of worship 
and organization is left to the future to disclose. 
The one thing essential is that we keep the unity of 
the Spirit in the bonds of peace, and by love serve 
one another. 

(&) Holiness. How pure was the body of Christ, 
offered to God in holy service, then in holy sacrifice, 
a Lamb without blemish and without spot. No 
stain of sin defiled his hands. His lips obeyed the 
law of truth and love. His feet never strayed in for- 
bidden paths. His body was the obedient instru- 
ment of a holy spirit. His flesh was as pure and 
clean as his soul. Holiness is the law that he en- 
joins upon his Church, holiness, rigid, uncompromis- 
ing, absolute ; holiness that has its home in the heart, 
and rules with sovereign sway throughout the life. 
" Except your righteousness shall exceed the right- 
eousness of the scribes and Pharisees," he said to his 
disciples, " ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom 
of heaven." What was wanting in the righteousness 
of the scribes and Pharisees? They were well satis- 



THE CHURCH 193 

fied with it, and the people regarded them as the 
saints and patriots of the time. The fatal defect was 
that it was self-righteousness. There are two kinds 
of righteousness that men seek, and Paul has plainly 
distinguished them in his letter to the Philippians, 
ch. 3 :9, " Not having a righteousness of mine own, 
even that which is of the law, but that which is 
through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is 
from God by faith." There is the righteousness 
which man works out for himself through obedience 
to the law, there is the righteousness which he re- 
ceives from God through faith in Christ. Self-right- 
eousness has these fupdamental traits: it is super- 
ficial, plays upon the surface of the life, has no power 
to reach and cleanse the heart. And it is selfish. He 
who believes that he has attained salvation through 
his own endeavors looks down with pride and con- 
tempt upon those who are too infirm of purpose to 
climb as he has done, and thanks God that he is not 
like the rest of men. 

Perfect holiness we may not hope to attain in this 
life, but it is the goal toward which we must cease- 
lessly press on. We can (abstain from those gross 
and flagrant sins that bring reproach upon the name 
we bear. We cannot plead the weakness of human 
nature to excuse drunkenness or theft or unchastity. 
It is possible to abstain from these heinous forms of 
sin with the aid of the Spirit of God, and there are 
millions of believers whose lives have never been 
polluted by them. We must make it plain to the 
world that we are trying with God's help to lead a 



194 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

righteous life. And we must grow in grace, so that 
life becomes holier with the progress of the years. 
This we can do, this we must do, if we shall fulfil 
the command and follow the example of our Lord. 

(c) Beneficence. Peter pictures the life of Jesus 
in a single phrase " He went about doing good." 
He did not wait for men to come to him, he went to 
them. He sought the opportunity, he made the oc- 
casion. His life was spent in ministering to the 
needs of men in body and spirit. All churches, all in- 
dividuals, that bear his name must abide this search- 
ing test, Do they minister? Are they the servants 
of men? If not, by what right do they claim to be 
his? That is the test that shall be applied in the 
judgment of the great day. As we have ministered 
or failed to minister in his name, so shall our 
sentence be. 

A striking illustration is furnished in the fourth 
chapter of The Acts. Peter and John, unlearned and 
ignorant men, were arraigned before the sanhedrin. 
This was the question at issue, Is Jesus of Nazareth 
the Christ of God? These rude fishermen advanced 
an argument that the learned doctors of the law 
could not meet. It was not drawn from the interpre- 
tation of prophecy. There the scribes were prepared. 
This was the argument to which no answer could be 
found : " Seeing the man that was healed standing 
with them, they could say nothing against it." No 
reasoning could prevail against the fact that this man 
had been healed in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 
The standing arguments for Christianity are two 



THE CHURCH 195 

Christ, and the man who has been healed in the name 
of Christ. As long as the Church can show the man 
that is healed it will abide ; for he is the living wit- 
ness of the power of the Name. The power of the 
Church is measured by its beneficence. It is strong 
in proportion as it serves. If it is the body of Christ 
ruled by his Spirit, it must minister. If it ceases to 
minister, it is no longer his. " This commandment 
have we from him, that he who loveth God love his 
brother also." 

(rf) Sacrifice. He offered himself a sacrifice for 
his Church and the Church in turn must offer itself 
a sacrifice for him. Commentators have been much 
perplexed by Paul's words in Col. 1 :24 " Now I re- 
joice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on 
my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of 
Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the 
church." And at first sight the words are strange. 
Think of Paul, little Paul, making good the defi- 
ciency in Christ's sufferings ! We may be moved to 
say with Festus, " Paul, thou art mad ; thy much 
learning is turning thee mad." But a little thought 
will make it clear that here, too, Paul is speaking 
forth words of truth and soberness. In the atoning 
sacrifice of Christ, Paul, of course, claims no part. 
But he means that the Kingdom which was estab- 
lished by the suffering and sacrifice of Christ must 
be continued and completed by the suffering and 
sacrifice of his disciples. And in this work he claims 
a part. Sacrifice was an essential part, rather it was 
the heart and soul of Christ's ministry ; and it mus't 



196 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

hold the same place in the ministry of his Church. 
The spiritual body must be offered in sacrifice as the 
body of his flesh was offered on Calvary. " Present 
your bodies a living sacrifice." It is only as the 
Church answers the sacrifice of Christ with the 
sacrifice of self, giving life for life, that it is truly his. 
Where there is no spirit of sacrifice, there is no 
Christ. 

What limit may be set to the sacrifice which he 
requires? There is none. "Hereby know we love, 
because he laid down his life for us : and we ought to 
lay down our lives for the brethren." Our love, our 
sacrifice must respond to his. This spirit was in 
Moses when he cried, " Oh, this people have sinned 
a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet 
now, if thou wilt forgive their sin ; and if not, 
blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast 
written." Ex. 32 :31, 32. This was the spirit of Paul 
when he said, " I could wish that I myself were 
anathema from Christ for my brethren's sake, my 
kinsmen according to the flesh." Rom. 9:3. Words 
of this kind cannot be interpreted by rules of logic. 
They are the overflowing of a heart of love which is 
prepared for the utmost measure of sacrifice, if the 
desire of love may be fulfilled. 

Martin of Tours was seated in his cell when some 
one knocked at the door. He bade him come in, and 
a stranger entered with lordly air. " Who art thou ?" 
asked the saint. " I am the Lord Jesus," was the 
answer. But Martin was suspicious, as saints have 
reason to be in this evil world. And looking sharply 



THE CHURCH 197 

at him he inquired, " Where is the print of the 
nails?" and the Tempter fled abashed. No false 
Christ may stand that test. Jesus is known by the 
print of the nails. By this the disciples recognized 
him after his resurrection, and in heaven he appears 
as the Lamb that has been slain. 

A young girl was charged by her dying mother to 
care for her younger brothers and sisters. She gave 
herself to the task with rare devotion, but it was too 
great for her slender frame, and she broke down 
beneath the burden. As she lay upon her deathbed, 
she said to the nurse : " I am afraid to meet the Lord 
Jesus. I have not attended church and Sunday 
school, and I fear that he will be displeased." The 
nurse smiled, and said, " When you meet Jesus, just 
show him your hands." Poor little hands worn and 
wasted with loving service in his name, will he not 
rejoice when he sees them, and bid her welcome to 
his Kingdom ? Well the Master knows the print of 
the nails. 

Such is the relation of the Church to Christ. It 
draws its life from him, and renders that life to him 
again in service and sacrifice. This life the Church 
receives, this service and sacrifice the Church ren- 
ders, through its members. For the Church has 
nothing but what we give, does nothing but what we 
do, is nothing but what we make it. If these marks 
of unity, holiness, beneficence, and sacrifice which 
characterize his fleshly body are reproduced in his 
spiritual body, the Church, it will be only as they 
are reproduced in us, as the Spirit that dwelt in 



198 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

Christ dwells in us, and we seek to follow him. The 
duty that is laid upon the Church rests upon us. It 
becomes us every one to ask ourselves, Am I, as a 
professed member of the body of Christ, living at 
peace with all who bear his name? Am I living a 
life of holiness, of beneficence, of sacrifice, for the 
good of man and the glory of God ? He who to these 
questions may gratefully and humbly answer: " Yes. 
By the grace of God I am trying to live the life of 
Christ," is a member of the true Church, which is 
the body of Christ, the fulness of him that filleth all 
in all. 



THE PROVERBS 199 

XV 
THE PROVERBS 

" The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of 

Israel." 

Prov. 1:1 

The Psalms and the Proverbs live side by side 
upon the pages of Scripture. They represent the 
component parts of religion, the inner and the outer, 
the spiritual and the practical, the soul and the body. 
An old divine well said, " He that would be wise, let 
him read the Proverbs; he that would be holy, let 
him read the Psalms." One book is therefore fitly 
ascribed to David, the man after God's own heart, 
and the other to Solomon, the wisest of the sons of 
men. A great scholar aptly reminds us that in turn- 
ing from the Psalms to the Proverbs we pass from 
David's closet of prayer to Solomon's school of 
wisdom. 

On the threshold wisdom herself meets us, and 
bids us enter ; a noble and benignant figure, arrayed 
in all the dignity and grace that may commend her 
to the admiration and the love of men ; prophetic of 
the Christ, who is the word and the wisdom of God. 
In the Old Testament and in the New wisdom is 
clad in flesh and blood, and speaks with human lips. 
The wisdom of Proverbs is the Christ of the Gospels. 

Sometimes religion puts on her beautiful gar- 
ments, moves with stately step to the house of God. 
kneels before the altar with humble confession, with 



200 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

devout thanksgiving, with exultant praise. So Mil- 
ton pictures her, a pensive nun, devout and pure, her 
looks commercing with the skies, her rapt soul sit- 
ting in her eyes. That is the religion of the Psalms. 
Then she leaves the altar and the house of God, turns 
her steps homeward, puts off her splendid robes, 
dons her everyday attire, her working clothes, and 
busies herself with the round of daily tasks. Relig- 
ion can turn her hand to anything, is a maid of all 
work. The religion that is found at the altar of God 
on Sunday, may be found at the washtub on Monday. 
That is the religion of the Proverbs. 

In the godly life these are never separated the 
religion of Sunday and of Monday, of worship and 
of work, of prayer and of practice. 

The order of Scripture is the order of experience. 
First is the religion of the Psalms, then the religion 
of the Proverbs. What is the theme of the Psalms? 
The fear of God. What rs the theme of the Pro- 
verbs? Wisdom. But the beginning of wisdom is 
the fear of God. Solomon the wise is the son of 
David the devout. Religion is enshrined in the 
heart, then manifested in the life. Proverbs teaches 
us how the spirit of the Psalms may embody itself in 
the routine of common tasks. This is the way the 
fear of God will show itself in the daily course and 
conduct of life, in the interests and relations and 
activities of the world. This is the mode in which 
devotion will express itself in duty. This must be 
the manner of life of the man whose heart is a temple 
of the Most High. 



THE PROVERBS 201 

Thus the Psalms and the Proverbs represent 
being and doing, character <and conduct, disposition 
and action, faith and works. God has joined them 
together, let no man put them asunder. The attempt 
is often made to separate them, but they cannot 
dwell apart. Divorced from the religion of the 
Psalms, the morality of the Proverbs sinks to the 
level of a shrewder and more enlightened form of 
selfishness. We say honesty is the best policy, and 
it is true. But if that is my only motive in the 
matter, I am politic, not honest. For honesty be- 
longs primarily to disposition. If I covet, I am a 
thief at heart. If I am honest only because I think 
it pays, I will be dishonest when I think it will pay 
me better. The honesty that has no deeper root 
than expediency is a timeserver and a hypocrite, for 
sale to the highest bidder. 

On the other hand, if the religion of the Proverbs 
is rooted in the Psalms, the religion of the Psalms 
bears fruit in the Proverbs. One is the soul, the 
other the body. The body without the soul is dead, 
the soul without the body is impotent. The soul is 
the life of the body, the body is the organ and instru- 
ment of the soul, through which it expresses its na- 
ture and carries out its will. The religion of the 
Proverbs alone will sink to sheer selfishness, suppos- 
ing that godliness is a way of gain ; the religion of 
the Psalms alone will decline to -a dreamy sentimen- 
talism, which mistakes indolence for meditation and 
self-indulgence for devotion. Morality without re- 
ligion is an empty show ; religion without morality is 



202 THE WAU, AND THE GATES 

an idle dream. You cannot show religion unless you 
have it ; you cannot have it unless you show it. Re- 
ligion is the fear of God in the heart ; morality is the 
fear of God in the life. Let the Psalms teach us how 
to worship, and the Proverbs how to work. Then 
shall we be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing: 
then shall the whole man be sanctified, body, soul, 
and spirit. 

The religion of the Bible has been termed im- 
practical, unsuited to the present life, and adapted 
only to that ideal state, that golden age, which lies 
hidden in the mists of the far distant future. 
" Otherworldly " is a favorite term to describe its 
character. One of the great books of the world is 
the " Social Contract " of Rousseau, the Bible of the 
French Revolution ; the work of a man whom some 
have ventured to call the most influential teacher of 
mankind since the days of Jesus and his apostles. 
In this book Rousseau affirms that " Christianity is 
an entirely spiritual religion, concerned solely with 
heavenly things; the Christian's country is not of 
this world. He does his duty, it is true, but he does 
it with a profound indifference as to the good or ill 
success of his endeavors." " Christianity preaches 
only slavery and dependence . . . True Chris- 
tians are made to be slaves." " Christian troops are 
excellent we are told. I deny it ; let them show me 
any that are such. For my part I know of no Chris- 
tian troops." 

We ask in wonder as we read these words, had he 
never heard of Cromwell's Ironsides a hundred years 



THE PROVERBS 203 

before? Their enemies at least were thoroughly 
convinced that they were good soldiers ; these men 
of whom Macaulay says that they moved to victory 
with the precision of machines, while burning with 
the wildest fanaticism of Crusaders; these men 
whose backs no enemy ever saw and before whose 
face no enemy could ever stand. It would be inter- 
esting to learn the opinion of the Cavaliers regarding 
this judgment of Rousseau. And where in all the 
earth does political liberty prevail that is not the 
offspring of the freedom which Christ has brought 
to men? 

We have been told that the Christian fixes his 
eyes on heaven, and absorbed in contemplation of 
celestial scenes forgets that his feet still press the 
earth. As a picture of the actual conduct of Chris- 
tian men, this representation is simply grotesque. 
Where are these men that go about with their heads 
in the clouds, and hardly know whether they are in 
the body or out of the body? Does anybody know 
them? Has anybody seen them? In times past 
there were those who sought to isolate themselves 
from the world, withdraw from its cares and inter- 
ests, and devote themselves to the culture of their 
own souls. But we should have to search far and 
wide to discover men of that type to-day. No class 
of men shall we find more interested, active, efficient 
in every walk of life than those who bear the name 
of Christians. They are leaders in every sphere of 
thought and action. They control great business 



204 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

enterprises, they direct the policy of nations, they 
are shaping the fortunes of mankind. 

This representation of the Christian is as remote 
from the teaching of the Scripture as it is from the 
facts of history. There are, of course, passages of 
the Scripture which, taken alone, might seem to 
imply that the Christian life is altogether other- 
worldly. I can prove anything from the Scripture 
if you will let me choose my texts and will promise 
not to answer, It is written again. Paul bids us seek 
the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on 
the right hand of God ; set our minds on the things 
that are above, not on the things that are upon the 
earth. But he also bids us render to every man his 
due, and love our neighbors as ourselves, and do 
good unto all men as we have opportunity. The 
Master who said, " Lay not up for yourselves treas- 
ures upon the earth, where moth and rust consume, 
and where thieves break through and steal : but lay 
up for yourselves treasures in heaven," said also, 
" Ye are the salt of the earth, ... ye are the light 
of the world." One word transports us to the skies, 
the other brings us back to earth again. We are 
citizens of heaven, but we are residents of earth, and 
so long as we abide in the flesh we serve the heavenly 
Kingdom by fulfilling the tasks of the earthly life. 

In fact, the Bible is the most homely, the most 
practical of all the great religious books of the world. 
There is no other that gives such space to the com- 
mon affairs of life, offers such counsels, provides 
such minute directions for the conduct of our busi- 



THE PROVERBS 205 

ness, the doing of our duty, the filling of our place 
in this present world. No book besides concerns 
itself so profoundly and particularly with the com- 
mon tasks, interests, activities, relations, pleasures 
of men. 

It may be said, indeed, that a large part of the 
Bible is not religious at all in the sense in which we 
often employ the term. We insist on confining relig- 
ion to the sanctuary and the exercises of devotion. 
We distinguish sharply between the sacred and the 
secular, and properly used the distinction has its 
place. But no rigid line can be drawn. The secular 
cannot be set apart from the sacred as if they were 
wholly independent of each other. The Bible does 
not respect our distinctions, but overleaps them, and 
draws together what we seek to divide. We say the 
sacred is the sphere of religion, the secular is the 
sphere of the world. But we cannot draw a line and 
keep the Bible on one side of it. The secular and 
the sacred alike it claims for God. We cannot call 
it a thoroughly religious book, religious in all its 
parts, unless we broaden our conception of religion. 
There are whole books which are not religious in any 
narrow sense of the term. There is Esther, in which 
the name of God does not occur, which appears to 
move entirely in the sphere of secular history. 
There is the Song of Solomon, a passionate love 
poem. But in a larger sense both these books are 
profoundly religious, for one discovers the hand of 
God in history, and the other portrays with match- 
less beauty that ardent love which finds its highest 



206 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

and noblest expression in the union of the soul with 
God. The book of Proverbs gives far more space to 
work than to worship, to the week than to the Sab- 
bath, to the world than to the Church. It is con- 
cerned chiefly with the secular life, as we call it. It 
is more at home in the street, the market place, than 
in the closet or the synagogue. It has far more to 
say of our conduct in the world than of our behav- 
ior in the house of God. Our thoughts are turned 
outward rather than upward, fixed rather upon our 
duty to our neighbor than our service to God. It is 
vain to try to shut religion up in a corner. We 
sometimes conceive of life as of a modern steamship, 
divided into distinct compartments. Here is a place 
for business, here for politics, Here for pleasure ; and 
here is a quiet little corner for religion, where it may 
be out of the way. And we say, Kindly stay there. 
Be good enough to mind your own affairs, and let me 
attend to mine. You may direct my devotions, but 
let my business, my pleasures, my politics alone. I 
will do as I ought on Sunday, I will do as I please on 
Monday. I will respect the law of God in the sanc- 
tuary, I will consult my own interest and pleasure in 
the world. We say, Business is business ; but it is 
not. Business is religion, part of it. So is politics, 
so is pleasure. Religion lays its hand upon all that 
concerns men, every interest and activity, and says, 
It is all mine. I claim it for the King. 

Religion will not be shut up in a corner; it will 
not be satisfied to appear in shining raiment on 
Sunday, >and go into modest retirement during the 



THE PROVERBS 207 

week. It is eager, curious, inquisitive, meddlesome. 
It insists on knowing what you are doing, and why. 
It pries into every nook and corner of life. If you 
are not willing that it should intrude everywhere, 
you will do well to shut it out altogether. For when 
once it enters it sets about doing thorough work. It 
inquires how you keep your accounts, how you han- 
dle your tools, how you treat your neighbors, how 
you pay your debts, how you study your lessons, 
how you order your household, how you govern your 
tongue, how you earn your money, what you spend 
and what you save and what you give. Nothing es- 
capes its scrutiny. 

Read this book of the Proverbs and mark how it 
sweeps the whole range of our interests and rela- 
tions. What does it not embrace? Buying and 
selling, marrying and giving in marriage, the train- 
ing of children, the care of the household, the use of 
money, the value of a good name, the use and abuse 
of the tongue, table manners ; from the highest to the 
lowest concerns of life, nothing is wanting. A com- 
plete code of manners and morals is provided here. 
Religion does not walk with its head in the clouds. 
The economic virtues are enjoined. Questions of 
the first importance in our time are discussed and 
determined temperance, the social evil, honor and 
honesty in business, national righteousness. Truly 
this is a net that gathers of every kind. 

All this is so obvious that the book has been 
charged with sheer worldliness. It is a collection of 
maxims of worldly wisdom, shrewd but selfish. It 



208 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

teaches a man how to get on in the world, is a hand- 
book of utilitarian ethics and nothing more, has no 
more religious character than Poor Richard's Al- 
manac. Why is it given a place in the sacred 
volume? 

There are portions of the book that, taken alone, 
may give color to the charge. But the Proverbs 
does not stand alone. It is part of a great volume, a 
chapter in a great book. Its message must be in- 
terpreted in the light of the whole record. And we 
must keep in mind continually the relation which it 
sustains to the Psalms. There lies the key to the 
interpretation of the book, for there we find the spirit 
which is here expressed. Wisdom is the fruit of the 
fear of God, that deep-seated, abiding, filial fear, 
blended of reverence and love, which issues in im- 
plicit obedience to his will. The fear of God that in 
the Psalms expresses itself in burning words, in the 
Proverbs shows itself in deeds; and the words and 
deeds spring from the same root. Morality is relig- 
ion in its everyday garb, its working dress. Moral- 
ity is religion at work. W'hen we worship we call it 
religion ; when we work we call it morality. But it 
is the same spirit, the fear of God manifesting itself 
now in this way, now in that. For the religion of the 
Scripture nothing is too high, nothing too low. Like 
the Master, though its home is above the stars it 
stoops to the lowest place, the most menial service. 
What may we not expect of a religion whose Lord 
is over all, blessed forever, but came into the world 
to minister, to take the form of a servant, <and bowed 



THE PROVERBS 209 

himself to wash the feet of man sovereign of all 
and servant of all? 

Proverbs is the book of applied religion. Theory 
is reduced to practice. Thoughts and emotions 
clothe themselves in action. The teaching is plain, 
practical, prosaic, is mainly concerned with the 
trivial round, the common task. Here are no rap- 
tures, no ecstasies, no visions, no opened heavens, 
no celestial flights, no mounting as on eagle's wings 
above the skies, no glimpses of the glory that shall 
one day be revealed. Our eyes are fixed upon the 
ground, and rarely are they lifted to the skies. We 
might choose as the motto of the book the twenty- 
sixth verse of the fourth chapter as it is rendered in 
the Authorized Version : " Ponder the path of thy 
feet," look where you are going ; or in the language 
of the New Testament, " Look therefore carefully 
how ye walk." 

"This is the end of the matter; all hath been 
heard : fear God and keep his commandments ; for 
this is the whole duty of man." Pear God, that is 
the word of the Psalms; keep his commandments, 
that is the word of the Proverbs. Let the fear of 
God dwell in the heart, and direct and control the 
life. The Psalms point out the pathway to the skies ; 
the Proverbs indicate the path of daily duty: and 
the two are one. For to do our daily task as it comes 
to us faithfully and in the fear of God, that is the 
way to heaven. 



210 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

XVI 
THE MASTER'S PRAYER 

A study of the seventeenth chapter of the Gospel of John. 

The priest of the old economy was charged with a 
threefold office, teaching, intercession, and sacrifice. 
Each of these offices the Lord Jesus fulfilled in the 
last hours of his life. He taught his disciples by 
example and by word, as John records in chapters 
thirteen to sixteen of his Gospel ; he interceded for 
them in the prayer contained in this chapter; he 
offered himself a sacrifice for them upon the cross of 
Calvary. Two seasons of prayer marked the close of 
his life. In Gethsemane he prayed alone, for him- 
self, with heart-broken cry, as his spirit was crushed 
beneath the burden of the world's guilt. Here he 
prays for himself indeed, but chiefly for his dis- 
ciples; in their presence, calm, confident, serene. 
John the beloved invites us to enter the upper cham- 
ber and hear the Master pray. 

Jesus was a man of prayer, but this is the only 
extended prayer of his that has been preserved. The 
burden of it is that God may be glorified. To glorify 
him is to make him known. It is the crowning glory 
of God to reveal himself, to impart himself. And in 
this revelation of himself is comprehended the high- 
est good of the creature; for to know him is life 
eternal. He prays that God may be made known to 
all men, that all may be filled and flooded with the 



THE MASTER'S PRAYER 211 

divine life. That this may be accomplished he prays 
first for himself : " Father, the hour is come ; glorify 
thy Son, that the Son may glorify thee." His inter- 
cession is grounded on his sacrifice. He prays the 
Father to accept the service and sacrifice he has 
rendered ; and in return, " Glorify thou me with thine 
own self with the glory which I had with thee before 
the world was." How indissolubly blended is the 
glory of the Father and the Son. I have glorified 
thee, glorify thou me, that I may yet more highly 
glorify thee. 

Was this prayer answered? Paul tells us. In 
Phil. 2:9-11 he speaks of the threefold state of 
Christ; before the incarnation when he was in the 
form of God ; his incarnate state, when he assumed 
the form of a servant ; and his exalted state, in which 
he abides forever. And in the description of this 
state of heavenly exaltation observe how exactly it 
is shown that the prayer is answered. He asked that 
God would glorify him, and he gave him the name 
which is above every name ; he asked this that men 
might be saved, and unto him every knee shall bow, 
and every tongue shall confess that he is Lord ; the 
final purpose of the prayer is that God may be glori- 
fied, and all the honor accorded him is unto the glory 
of God the Father. John who heard the prayer, saw 
the prayer fulfilled, as in the visions of Patmos he 
beheld the glory of the risen and exalted Christ, and 
heard the song of the redeemed, " Worthy is the 
Lamb that hath been slain to receive the power, and 
riches, and wisdom, 'and might, and honor, and glory, 



212 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

and blessing " ; and the whole creation thundered its 
Amen. 

Then he prays for his disciples, and not for them 
alone, but for all who believe on him through their 
word. With that blessed company we may rever- 
ently and humbly take our place, assured that we 
have a part in the Master's prayer. He ever liveth to 
make intercession for us, and prays for us by name 
as he prayed for them. What does he ask for his 
people to-day? This prayer shall teach us. For the 
needs of the disciples are our needs, and he prays for 
us as he prayed for them. The same petitions are 
upon his lips to-day, as he presents us before his 
Father's throne. 

He lays bare his thought of us, his desire for us, 
his will concerning us. The prayer of the Master 
must be the purpose of the disciple. What he asks 
for us we must strive with all our strength to fulfil. 
We have here set before us in the most appealing 
and compelling form the law of the Christian life. 
His prayer to God on our behalf indicates the qjan- 
ner of life that he would have us lead, and every 
petition is at the same time a command. 

There are four petitions embraced in the prayer : 

(1) Keep them. V. 2. He knew how weak they 
were, how ignorant, how foolish, how prone to go 
astray, how slow to believe. They shall be perse- 
cuted for his name's sake. They shall be tried and 
tempted. While he was with them he kept them; 
but soon he shall be taken away and they shall be 
scattered as sheep having no shepherd. He commits 



THE MASTER'S PRAYER 213 

them to the care of the heavenly Father. " Father, 
keep them in thy name," in that blessed revelation 
of truth and grace which thou hast granted unto men 
through me. There may they abide. 

He does not ask that they may be taken out of the 
world, that they may accompany him as he ascends 
beyond the skies. The believer needs the discipline 
of the world, and the world needs the witness of the 
believer. There are lessons that may be learned only 
in this earthly life, patience, endurance, all those les- 
sons that spring from the hard and bitter experiences 
that befall us here. There is no place for them in the 
world above. If they are ever to be learned they 
must be learned on earth. And there is service that 
may be rendered only here. A larger and richer serv- 
ice awaits us in the life to come, but there are forms 
of service that are confined to this present life. The 
work of winning lost souls to Christ lies open to us 
only during this earthly life, so far as we are told, 
and if we do not perform it now it must remain for- 
ever undone. We do not know indeed that there is 
any kind of service that we may render to mortal 
men after death has overtaken us. How urgent then 
is the call of duty. " We must work the works of 
him that sent me, while it is day : the night cometh, 
when no man can work." John 9:4. So far as we 
understand, the time of earthly service ends when 
the earthly life is closed. 

The prayer is not that they should be taken out of 
the world, where they have much to learn and much 
to do, but that they may be kept from the Evil One, 



214 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

the prince of this world. He is about to sift them as 
wheat. He shall never cease to tempt them as he 
tempted their Master. They are weak and sinful. 
This very night they have been disputing among 
themselves, dreaming of thrones and crowns under 
the shadow of the cross. Nothing but the hand of 
God can hold them safe. And to that divine hand he 
intrusts them, that hand of which he said, " My 
Father, who hath given them unto me, is greater 
than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of 
the Father's hand." John 10 :29. 

For us he offers this prayer without ceasing 
" Father, keep them." Keep them from the Evil 
One. He does not ask that we may be separated 
from the world, secluded, shielded from temptation 
and trial. But he prays that in the midst of the 
world's business and conflicts and seductions and 
sins we may be kept pure iand clean. In trial and 
temptation keep them true. Let nothing draw them 
or drive them from God. 

(2) Sanctify, consecrate them. V. 17. Fit them 
for the service to which they are called. Jesus is 
sanctified and sent ; the disciple is saved, sanctified, 
sent. " As thou didst send me into the world, even 
so sent I them into the world." When he appeared 
to them after his resurrection, he said to them, " As 
the Father hath sent me, even so send I you." " And 
when he said this, he breathed on them, and saith 
unto them, Receive ye the Holy Spirit." In these 
words and this symbolic act he declared that he sent 
them upon the same mission upon which he himself 



THE MASTER'S PRAYER 215 

was sent, and that he clothed them with the same 
power. 

Their consecration rests upon his. " For their 
sakes I sanctify, consecrate, myself, that they them- 
selves also may be sanctified in truth." He conse- 
crated himself to our salvation that we might be con- 
secrated to his service. " I have glorified thee," he 
said ; " I am glorified in them." As he made God 
known to them, so they in turn are to make God 
known to men in him. 

(3) Unite them. Vs. 20, 21. 

Sin divides ; we turn every one to his own way. 
Grace unites. The ways of sin are many, the way 
of grace is one. As men find their common center 
in God, and are drawn to him, they are drawn to one 
another. 

There are three characteristics of the unity for 
which our Lord here prays : 

(a) It is catholic, embracing all who believe on 
him as he is offered in the gospel. Every believer is 
a member of the holy Catholic Church, which is the 
body of Christ. " That they may all be one." The 
Church, the true Church, is one. Believers are 
united to one another because they are united to him. 
But this essential unity is often forgotten or even 
denied. Jesus prays that it may be apprehended and 
embraced by all who bear his name. They are one, 
may they know that they 'are one. The divine idea 
of the Church is gradually and imperfectly realized 
in human experience ; but one day it will be seen that 
in Christ there cannot be Greek and Jew, circum- 



216 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

cision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, 
bondman, freeman ; but he is all, and in all. 

(6) It is spiritual " that they may be one, even as 
we are one." The oneness of the Father and the Son 
consists in the possession of a common life. They 
are one because they have one life. The unity of the 
Church is the unity not of creed or organization or 
form, but of life. The Spirit of Christ is the life of 
the Church, and because he dwells in the hearts of 
believers they are one. They are one by virtue of 
the one Spirit in whom they live and move and have 
their being. Having one life they are animated by 
one motive, seek one end. Here again the divine 
purpose is gradually wrought out in human ex- 
perience. Because believers are not wholly brought 
under the sway of the Spirit, but are still ruled in 
part by selfishness and sin, their union is imperfect. 
In the degree in which they iare subject to the will 
of the Spirit they are conscious of their fellowship 
with all in whom the Spirit dwells. In so far as the 
divine life beats full and strong in the hearts of the 
people of God it will express itself in unity of spirit 
and motive and service. 

(c) It is visible. "That the world may believe 
that thou didst send me"; "that the world may 
know that thou didst send me, and lovedst them, 
even as thou lovedst me." But how shall the world 
be led to believe in Christ and know Christ through 
the oneness of his Church unless that oneness be 
made visible? There must be some outward mark 
of this spiritual unity whereby it may be recognized. 



THE MASTER'S PRAYER 217 

What is the visible sign of the unity of believers? 
" By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, 
if ye have love one to another." John 13 :35. The 
outward sign of Christian unity is brotherly love. 

This is the essential nature of that oneness of be- 
lievers which Jesus prays may be realized in his 
Church. In what way this unity may find expres- 
sion, whether it shall issue in unity of organization 
and doctrine, we do not know. But of this we may 
rest assured, that the multitude of discordant and 
sometimes belligerent sects into which the Christian 
Church is rent asunder will not continue forever to 
bring reproach upon the common name they bear. 
Many of these bodies can give no sufficient reason 
for existence. They had their origin in circum- 
stances and conditions which have long since passed 
away. The work of reconstruction and reunion has 
begun, and the day is not far distant, we may fer- 
vently hope, when instead of the present chaos of 
two hundred churches, most of them small and weak, 
having no distinctive message to deliver, standing 
for no principle that is not more adequately repre- 
sented and supported elsewhere, we shall have a few 
great historic churches, each representing some great 
moment in the history of the Kingdom, some funda- 
mental truth, some form of doctrine or mode of ad- 
ministration or worship which in the course of divine 
providence has been especially committed to its care ; 
and all united through the Spirit of Christ in faith 
and love and good works unto the glory of God. In 
that day, when Presbyterians and Methodists and 



218 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

Baptists and Lutherans of every name shall each be 
gathered into one great church instead of being 
broken into fragments as they are to-day, we shall 
recognize more clearly the unity of believers, and 
the prayer of our Lord will draw near its fulfilment. 

(4) Glorify them. " I desire that they also whom 
thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they 
may behold my glory, which thou hast given me." 
V. 24. The vision of his glory exerts a transforming 
power even in this present life where we behold him 
through the veil of sense and sin. " We all, with 
unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of 
the Lord, are transformed into the same image from 
glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit." 
II Cor. 3:18. His earthly glory he imparts to us 
even here. " The glory which thou hast given me I 
have given unto them." His heavenly glory he shall 
share with us in the life to come. " We know that, 
if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him ; for we 
shall see him even a he is." I John 3 :2. We shall 
behold, we shall share, his glory, shall even sit with 
him on his throne. He said, " I go to prepare a place 
for you." His going is itself the preparation, for 
where he is there is heaven to the believer. To be 
with him, to be like him, is heaven. 

Thus he prayed for himself, for his disciples. But 
the prayer does not stop with them ; it reaches be- 
yond the Church and embraces all mankind. The 
world was not forgotten. How could it be, when he 
was just about to die for the world? The interces- 
sion is as broad as the atonement. The Lamb of God 



THE MASTER'S PRAYER 219 

that taketh away the sin of the world, shall he not 
pray for the world ? He said, indeed, " I pray not 
for the world, but for those whom thou hast given 
me." But he did not mean that the world had no 
part in his thought, his prayer. He prayed first for 
himself because on God's acceptance of his atoning 
sacrifice the whole work of redemption depends. 
Then he prayed for his disciples to whom his grace 
has been made known that it may accomplish in 
them its perfect work. But he looks beyond them to 
the great multitude of those who shall believe 
through their word, and to the world that lies in the 
Evil One. He prays that the world through them 
may be led to knowledge and to faith. " That the 
world may believe," " that the world may know." 
It is through the disciples that the world must re- 
ceive the gospel. The sanctification of the disciples 
must precede the salvation of the world. They have 
received the knowledge of the truth from him; the 
world must receive it from them. Therefore he 
prays that they may be prepared for their ministry, 
and that through them the world may be won to 
God. They are called out of the world, then sent 
into the world as he was sent, and their mission is as 
broad as his. Through him God is revealed to his 
disciples, through his disciples to the Church, 
through the Church to the world. No limits may be 
set to his grace and power beyond those which he 
has himself imposed; and he declared that while 
many through sin and unbelief shall come short of 
eternal life, yet mankind as a whole shall be re- 



220 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

deemed. The race that fell in Adam shall be re- 
stored in him. " I, if I be lifted up from the earth, 
will draw all men unto myself." Lifted up upon the 
cross of Calvary, lifted up upon the throne of his 
glory, lifted up in the witness of his disciples by 
whom he is openly set forth crucified, he is gathering 
the world unto himself. 

It is the burden of his prayer that God may be 
glorified, glorified in the service and sacrifice of his 
Son, in the sanctification of believers, in the salva- 
tion of the world. For his disciples, for us, he prays 
that we may be kept from sin, sanctified for service, 
united in love, glorified with him. 

In these last words Jesus bestows two parting 
gifts. He committed his disciples to the Father, he 
committed the world to his disciples. They stand 
between God and the world, receiving his grace that 
they may make it known to men. He committed us 
to the Father; there lies our safety. He committed 
the world to us ; there lies our service. To keep our- 
selves in the love of God, and to fulfil our ministry 
to the world, is to be in harmony with our Lord's 
desire and prayer for us, and to do his will, which is 
the law of our life. 



CONTENTMENT 221 

XVII 
CONTENTMENT 

" Be content with such things as ye have." 

Heb. 13:5 

Men are by nature prone to extremes. Some are 
boastful. What they have is always the best. They 
hold themselves in high esteem and their own ex- 
cellence is reflected upon their surroundings. 
Others are fretful. Their lot in life is the hardest, 
their sorrows the sorest, their sufferings the keenest. 
Between these extremes of boastfulness and fretful- 
ness lies the golden mean, contentment. " Be con- 
tent with such things as ye have." If you believe 
that your circumstances are ordered by God's provi- 
dence there is no room for boasting. It is excluded. 
" What hast thou that thou didst not receive?" You 
will not take to yourself the credit of your pros- 
perity, but give thanks to God. There is no place 
for fretfulness or complaining. If I believe that the 
events of life befall by chance or fate, that they are 
directed by no intelligent purpose and serve no 
worthy end, I shall rebel against all that is hard and 
bitter. But if I believe that troubles, too, are from 
the hand of God, the same hand that bestows upon 
me blessings without number, and that he is infinite 
in wisdom as in love, that his love never fails and 
his wisdom is never at fault, I can endure the se- 



222 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

verest trials without a murmur because I am per- 
suaded that they serve his purpose. 

What is this contentment that the Scripture en- 
joins? We are confronted at once by the distinction 
between the circumstances and the self. We are 
commanded to be content with our circumstances, 
but not with ourselves, with what we have but not 
with what we are. " Be content with such things 
as ye have." We reverse the rule. Our discontent 
fastens upon our condition. If you ask a man, 
" Are you satisfied," he will tell you, " No. There 
is much that I should like to have more busi- 
ness, more money, more of the luxuries of life." 
Instinctively his mind turns to his outward state. 
How many men will say : " No, I am not content. I 
want to be a better man. I want more knowledge, 
more faith, more righteousness, more love "? If the 
energy we devote to bettering our condition were 
applied to bettering our character what progress we 
should make. Buddhism bids men seek the goal of 
life through self-suppression; Christianity, through 
self-development. Make the most of yourself 
Never rest until you have climbed the heights where 
God sits enthroned, and taken your place beside him 
as a son. You are made in the image of the Al- 
mighty, be content with nothing less than this, that 
you be filled unto all the fulness of God. 

Christianity does not forbid aspiration, ambition, 
the endeavor to improve our circumstances and bet- 
ter our condition. It does not bid men remain poor 
because they were born poor, if they have a chance 



CONTENTMENT 223 

to rise ; nor remain in a low place if a higher place is 
open to them. It enjoins the economic virtues, in- 
dustry, thrift, diligence, self control, the qualities 
that command success in every walk of life. It for- 
bids those vices that hurry men to ruin. " Godli- 
ness is profitable for all things, having promise of 
the life which now is, and of that which is to come." 
If this is God's world success can be won only by 
obedience to God's law. You cannot rise by tramp- 
ling the Commandrqents under foot. 

Contentment not only does not block the way of 
ambition, but it is its most potent ally. The way to 
prosper is to do the work of to-day with a tranquil 
heart. Do you do your best when you are anxious 
and worried? What is it that wears men out, cuts 
them off before their prime, hurries them to prema- 
ture graves? Is it work? Or is it worry? Work is 
of God, enjoined upon Adam in paradise. Worry is 
of the Devil. Man never worried until he sinned. 
Work brings sound sleep and hearty appetite ; worry 
brings wakeful nights, shattered nerves, impaired 
digestion. Work strengthens mind and body ; 
worry, like a consuming fever, burns the life out. 
The laws of nature cry out with the word of God, 
Don't worry. Don't lie awake at night bemoaning 
the mistakes of to-day. You cannot do to-day's work 
over again, you cannot do to-morrow's work until to- 
morrow comes. And the best preparation for the 
labors of the morrow is sleep. When the day's labor 
is over let it go. If you have made poor work of it, 
thank God you are done with it ; ask him to forgive 



224 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

you and go to sleep, that you may do better to-mor- 
row. Do not shoulder the burdens of to-morrow 
until you must. God sets the nights between the 
days that we may roll off our cares in sleep. Then 
we awake strong, refreshed, vigorous in mind and 
body, ready for whatever the day may bring. Do you 
drag the day into the night, burdening your soul 
with regret for the past and anxiety for the future? 
Every day has its share of mistakes and sins. Bring 
them all to God as the night draws on and say to 
him, My Father, the day is marred with follies and 
faults. I pray thee forgive me, and help me do better 
to-morrow. And he will say, I forgive you, my child. 
Now go to sleep. There are many of us to whom 
obedience to this command would mean added years 
of life and vast increase of power. There is no place 
for fretfulness or worry in the well-ordered life. If 
you can do better, do it. If not, why complain about 
it? Be content with to-day, not as an end but as a 
stepping-stone, a stage in life's journey. Be like the 
traveler who enjoys the scenery while he is speeding 
toward his home. Let each day have its own meas- 
ure of contentment and thanksgiving, each night its 
quiet, peaceful rest. Make your sleep as well as your 
labor a part of your religion. It is as needful to 
sleep well as to work well. Bodily conditions that 
we cannot control may deny us restful slumber, and 
for that we are not to blame. We recognize the hand 
of God in our affliction, and bear it as patiently as 
we can. But we have no right to murder sleep by 
our faithless fears, our anxieties, our brooding cares. 



CONTENTMENT 225 

We have no right to take the time that God gives us 
for rest, and fill it with vain regrets and foreboding 
fears. When God says, Rest, we must not labor. 
Let us lay our heads upon the pillow of contentment 
and rest in peace. The contented man is the tran- 
quil man, who works with a light heart and sleeps 
with a quiet spirit, and is prepared for the labor of 
the day through the rest of the night. 

If this contentment be so essential to our health 
and well-being, if it is a duty enjoined upon us by 
the Word of God, how shall we attain it ? How may 
we train ourselves to be contented? How shall we 
acquire this tranquil spirit, how make these peaceful 
days and restful nights our own? 

Contentment is not the fruit of circumstances. 
You will not win it by the increase of your goods, or 
the bettering of your outward estate. We often say, 
I should be satisfied if I had so much. But observa- 
tion should suffice to correct us. Your neighbor has 
what you covet; is he satisfied? Wants grow faster 
than wealth. In my experience the happiest men, so 
far as happiness is measured or determined by cir- 
cumstances, are those of moderate means, neither 
pinched with poverty nor burdened with wealth. 
Thousands upon thousands of men are seeking con- 
tentment in circumstances. They travel round the 
world for change of scene when they need change of 
self. They build a new house when they need a new 
heart. They are eager for more wealth when they 
have not learned to use what they have. Pope puts 
the truth in his incisive way : 



226 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

Oh happiness! Our being's end and aim! 

Good, Pleasure, Ease, Content! whate'er thy name: 

That something still which prompts the eternal sigh, 

For which we bear to live, or dare to die, 

Which still so near us, yet beyond us lies, 

O'erlooked, seen double, by the fool, and wise. 

Plant of celestial seed! if dropped below, 

Say, in what mortal soil thou deign'st to grow? 

Fair opening to some Court's propitious shine, 

Or deep with diamonds in the flaming mine? 

Twined with the wreaths Parnassian laurels yield, 

Or reaped in iron harvests of the field? 

Where grows? where grows it not? If vain our toil, 

We ought to blame the culture, not the soil: 

Fixed to no spot is Happiness sincere, 

'Tis nowhere to be found, or everywhere. 

It may be said, with such exceptions and qualifica- 
tions as attach to generalizations of this kind, that if 
any one of us is not contented where he is, he would 
be contented nowhere, for contentment is a qual- 
ity of spirit. There are many who set contentment 
before them as a goal to be attained after years of 
labor. They will spend most of their lives in making 
a fortune, then they will be content. But is it worth 
while to work like a slave for forty or fifty years for 
the chance of five or ten years of enjoyment? There 
are multitudes of men who in acquiring the means of 
pleasure lose the capacity for pleasure. They are 
rich enough to command the finest music, when their 
ears have grown dull ; the noblest books and paint- 
ings, when their eyes have grown dim ; the choicest 
dainties, when teeth and stomach have gone to- 
gether. They have everything to enjoy when they 



CONTENTMENT 227 

have lost the power to enjoy anything. In youth 
they have capacity without opportunity ; in age they 
have opportunity without capacity. They have 
given themselves to making money until they are fit 
for nothing else. If they retire from business they 
are wretched. The rest, the content, the happiness 
for which they have toiled and striven, eludes them. 
The man who does one thing only for fifty years 
finds that is all that he can do. He has worn the ruts 
of life so deep that he cannot get out of them. And 
often after a vain endeavor to find contentment else- 
where he goes back to business and dies in the 
harness. 

Contentment is not the fruit of circumstances. 
Nor is it a matter of natural disposition or tempera- 
ment. Some of us are of a more hopeful, sanguine, 
sunny temper than others. It is easier for us to be 
happy. Cares sit lightly on one that would crush 
another. What you brood over until you cannot 
sleep your neighbor throws off with a laugh. Some 
men are by nature light-hearted as a child, while 
with others it is an effort to smile. It is easier for 
this man to be contented than for that one. But con- 
tentment is enjoined upon us all. No matter what 
your circumstances, your disposition, be contented. 
You of light heart and cheerful spirit, always ready 
to break into a laugh, and you who are by nature of 
a melancholy temper, whose face is drawn into a 
frown until it has almost lost the power to relax into 
a smile, be content. You may be poor, you may be 
sick, you may be gloomy and morose by nature 



228 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

whatever you are, wherever you are, be content. It 
is a sweeping commandment, and no man may plead 
exemption by reason of any peculiarities of condition 
or character. 

We confess that the commandment is just, the 
advice is good. We ought to be content, it is better 
for us to be content, better for our health, our es- 
tate, our character, for body and soul. But we ask, 
Will you kindly tell us how? It is easy to say, Be 
content. But contentment is a virtue harder to prac- 
tice than to preach. How shall we attain it? Paul 
said, " I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, 
therein to be content ; I know how to be abased, and 
I know also how to abound ; in everything and in all 
things have I learned the secret both to be filled and 
to be hungry, both to abound and to be in want." 
Where had he learned this? In the school of ex- 
perience, which is the school of God. Contentment 
is not of nature. There is no royal road by which it 
may be won. What is asked of us is not the careless 
light-heartedness of a child, but the calm, sober 
satisfaction of a man who does to-day's work with 
his might, and is content to leave the future in the 
hands of God. The Scripture finds the ground of 
contentment not in circumstances or in native dis- 
position, but in the promise of God. " Be con- 
tent with such things as ye have." Why? Be- 
cause he himself hath said, " I will in no wise fail 
thee, neither will I in any wise forsake thee." So 
that with good courage we say, " The Lord is my 
helper; I will not fear: What shall man do unto 



CONTENTMENT 229 

me?" That was Paul's confidence. Why was he 
content under all the conditions of his eventful, la- 
borious life, filled with hardships and persecutions 
and trials of every kind? "I can do all things in 
him that strengtheneth me." God hath said is not 
that enough? May we not rest upon the word of 
the Almighty? May we not trust our Father? Is 
not his promise as sure as bonds and merchandise? 
An error of judgment, a bad investment, a season of 
commercial disaster may strip us of all we have ; but 
what can rob us of the promise of God? What can 
steal from us his protecting care, his bounty, his 
love? If I sleep well when I have a comfortable 
balance in the bank, should I not sleep when I have 
the sure promise of Almighty God? Suppose your 
child should wake in the night and begin to cry and 
you >ask, What is the matter? He says, I am afraid 
I shall have nothing to eat or to wear to-morrow. 
You say, Foolish child, all I have is yours. That is 
what God says to us. " All things are yours." All 
that I have is for my children. Yet we fret and cry 
as if there were no God in heaven. What have you? 
You say, Very little. I am poor. It is hard to be 
content with no more than this. But have you God 
for your Father, Christ for your Saviour, the Holy 
Spirit for your Comforter, the Bible for your guide, 
heaven for your home? Are the resources of om- 
nipotence pledged to you? And you call yourself 
poor ! No man is poor who is a child of God and an 
heir of heaven. The best things of the universe 
are his. 



230 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

How far the promise brings rest to our hearts de- 
pends on what God is to us. If the world is fore- 
most in our thought, we shall grasp of it all we can. 
We shall never be satisfied, for we shall never have 
all we want. We shall measure ourselves by our 
neighbors, and find some one who is better off to 
stir us to envy and discontent. Montesquieu says, 
" If one only wished to be happy, it could be readily 
(accomplished ; but we wish to be happier than other 
people, and this is almost always difficult, for we 
believe others to be happier than they are." But if 
God is all in all to us we can rest anywhere in him. 
Just in proportion as the vision of God grows dim 
and the world fills the horizon of our thought, covet- 
ousness, eager, grasping, greedy, voracious, insati- 
able, seizes upon us. We are content just as we 
live near to God, for God alone is unchangeable. If 
we find the ground of happiness in aught else it is 
unstable, insecure, liable at any moment to be over- 
turned, and we are in constant anxiety and fear lest 
even the measure of satisfaction that we enjoy may 
be stolen from us. But the contentment that is 
found in God endures unshaken amid all the storms 
of life and abides eternal in the soul. 

Here lies the secret of happiness, not in having all 
you want, but in being content with what you have. 
Heathen sages have grasped this truth. Socrates 
said, " Happy is he who is content with least, for 
contentment is nature's wealth." This is the only 
wealth that all may possess, that lies open to the 
poorest, that can never be lost or stolen. Scripture 



CONTENTMENT 231 

gives contentment its only sure foundation in the 
promise of Almighty God. The root of contentment 
is faith. Christ says to men : " You are seeking rest, 
happiness. You set it before you as the distant goal 
of life. You expect to spend most of your days in 
discontent, in unrest, in arduous toil, in the hope that 
when the sands of life are nearly run you may attain 
to peace. You give the freshness of your youth, the 
strength of your manhood to unremitting toil, deny- 
ing yourself the pleasures of the world, that in the 
evening of life, when old age has come upon you, 
when your senses are dull and your faculties en- 
feebled, you may enjoy a little season of rest. This 
rest, this satisfaction that you seek, I proffer you 
to-day. You propose to win it at some distant time. 
I give it to you now. You need not wait one hour. 
Without leaving your place or changing your cir- 
cumstances, just where you are, just as you are, you 
may have peace, happiness, content. You propose 
to buy it by years of toil, I give it to you freely. 
You expect to find peace in worldly wealth, in con- 
ditions that are always changing, always insecure. 
Here are the promises of God, find your peace in 
them." 

This is not mere theory. God's children have 
practiced it in every age. The injunction is com- 
mended by the experience of myriads of men and 
women who have found joy and peace in believing 
amid the darkness of trial and suffering and distress. 
If you would learn the lesson of content, do not go 
to the mansions of the rich and great where the 



232 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

revel and the feast hold sway ; do not ask the man of 
millions who is grasping greedily for millions more. 
Go to the sick chamber, to the poor, the old, the 
friendless, to those who suffer with incurable dis- 
ease, their bodies racked with pain. The brightest 
faces, the most thankful hearts I have ever known, 
I have found under such conditions as these. There 
is peace in the soul, there is praise on the lips. God 
is theirs, though all else be denied. They who seem 
to have least to be thankful for are often the most 
thankful, because their weakness and distress have 
driven them to God. The less they have of earth the 
more they cling to heaven. If you would learn the 
secret of content, if you would have your repinings 
put to shame, if you would know what it is to give 
thanks, to trust God, to enjoy the peace that pass- 
eth all understanding, visit God's suffering children, 
who have mastered these lessons in the hard school 
of experience, and because they have nothing else on 
which to lean, lean wholly on God. 

Multitudes of men and women are outside the 
Kingdom of God because they never stop to think 
of life and death and the world to come. They are 
so engrossed with present cares, so burdened with 
the duties of the day, so anxious about to-morrow, 
so eager to get more, so worried about their liveli- 
hood, that their mind is never lifted above the daily 
routine of toil. There are many who might be won 
to the Kingdom if only this pressure could be lifted 
from mind and heart. If you speak to them of duty 
and of God they have no time to think of these 



CONTENTMENT 233 

things. Why have they no time? They have all 
the time there is, just as much time as anybody has, 
twenty-four hours in the day, three hundred and 
sixty-five days in the year. The trouble is not want 
of time. You have the same time as your neighbor, 
but he is in the Kingdom and you are not. The 
trouble is your mind is so preoccupied, so filled with 
the cares of the world, that there is no room for the 
thought of God to jenter. You carry your business 
with you all day and all night. You go to bed with 
it, sleep with it, rise with it, are never free from it. 
What chance has God with you? If he speaks you 
do not hear. Some time he may lay his hand heavily 
upon you to bow you to your knees, may stretch you 
on the bed of sickness to make you look up. If you 
were less eager, less anxious, if you cherished some- 
thing of the spirit of content God might make you 
hear. 

/Godliness with contentment, said Paul, is great 
gain. As if without contentment godliness is in- 
complete, imperfect. And so indeed it is. Be a 
Christian, be a contented Christian. If you are not 
contented, your trust in God is imperfect. We honor 
God by our faith, we dishonor him by our fears. 
Just as we have a tranquil, peaceful mind are we 
qualified for his service. How can we serve God 
heartily, efficiently, when the soul is torn with cares 
and doubts and fears? We commend our religion to 
our fellow men by the restful, contented spirit. They 
ask, Does God keep his promises? Does Christ give 
men rest, peace? Does religion make men stronger, 



234 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

wiser, happier, better? Can it stand the wear and 
tear of daily life ? Is it good for the workaday world ? 
These are questions that can be answered only in 
terms of experience. We Christians must answer 
them, and we answer them not with our lips but 
with our lives. We honor God and commend our 
religion to men if we show in our daily living that 
we have found strength and peace and joy and sweet 
content in believing upon Jesus Christ our Saviour. 
Let us show the world that God gives in his Son all 
that men need, all that men seek, and gives it now. 



WRITTEN AGAIN 235 

XVIII 
WRITTEN AGAIN 

" Again it is written." 

Matt. 4 :7 

The union of the divine and the human natures 
in the person of Christ involves many difficulties. 
So does the union of body and soul in man. We 
are akin on the one side to God and on the other 
to the brute. If we cannot understand ourselves, 
why should we wonder if we cannot understand 
him? The Bible was not given us to clear up 
all mysteries. If it should undertake to explain 
everything from the dawn of creation, we should 
never get to Christ. The world would still be read- 
ing the opening chapter of Genesis, for after all these 
centuries we are just beginning to gain some insight 
into God's works of creation and providence. There 
are spots on the sun, but it illumines our path. 
There are mysteries in the Scripture, but it teaches 
us how to live. And even the hard passages of the 
Word, smitten by the hand of faith, have often, like 
the rock in the wilderness, yielded the water of life 
to the thirsty soul. 

We shall not stop to ask, "because we cannot hope 
to answer, the question, How could Christ be 
tempted? This we must believe, it was a real 
temptation. He was " in all points tempted like as 
we are, yet without sin." Those words indicate at 
once the range, the reality, and the result of his 



236 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

temptation. It was no sham battle that Christ 
fought in the wilderness. Temptation is not sin, 
yielding is sin. Temptation is a necessary part of 
life's discipline, and even the assaults of Satan are 
embraced within the purpose of God. It is a strange 
conjunction of terms, " Then was Jesus led up of the 
Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil." 
Led up of the Spirit to be tempted of the Devil. 
Satan, too, is God's servant. Before temptation 
turns to sin the outward suggestion of evil must be 
followed by the inward response. When we pray, 
" Lead us not into temptation," we ask that we may 
be kept from the solicitations and seductions of evil ; 
or, if that may not be, if temptations are needful to 
strengthen and refine the character, that we may be 
armed with strength to overcome. If we rush into 
temptation of our own free will, we have no promise. 
But if, like our Master, we are led of the Spirit, and 
following his guidance are brought face to face with 
temptation, the assurance is ours, that God will not 
suffer us to be tempted above that we are able, but 
with the temptation will make also the way of es- 
cape, that we may be able to bear it. " Then was he 
led up to be tempted," immediately after his bap- 
tism. The Spirit that descended in the form of a 
dove is still upon him, the voice that spake from the 
opened heavens, " This is my beloved Son, in whom 
I am well pleased," is still ringing in his ears. Satan 
is very bold. He attacks us in our highest moods, 
and it is a common experience of God's people that 
the most exalted spiritual states are followed by 



WRITTEN AGAIN 237 

moods of reaction and depression, so that sometimes 
we seem to be lifted high only that our fall may be 
the greater. Satan redoubles his efforts when he 
sees that we are about to escape him. He loves a 
shining mark, lays hold of the most eminent of God's 
saints in the hour when their triumph seems assured. 
Jesus said to Peter, " I will give unto thee the keys 
of the kingdom of heaven," because Peter confessed 
in him the Christ. And almost in the same day as 
the promise came the stern rebuke, " Get thee behind 
me, Satan," because Peter sought to turn him from 
the way of the cross. What hope have we then! 
Christ has conquered, and we may conquer in him. 
" I have overcome," he said. " This is the victory 
that hath overcome the world, even our faith," be- 
cause faith unites us to him. It was a battle royal 
that was fought there in the desert. For thousands 
of years Satan had been ravaging the earth, destroy- 
ing the souls of men, until he seemed to hold pos- 
session of the field. Then God came to earth in per- 
son and took command. God and Satan met face to 
face, Satan was defeated, his power broken, and 
every man who will put his trust in Christ may have 
a part in Christ's victory. 

Let us inquire how this story bears upon our lives, 
how we may draw from the example of our Lord 
wisdom and strength for our conflict with the 
Tempter. 

First Satan sought to lead Christ to distrust God, 
to make use of his divine power to relieve his 
hunger. " Command that these stones become 



238 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

bread." But he would have been no true man, no 
example for us, if in time of need he had fallen back 
upon his omnipotence. He might use his divine 
power on behalf of others, he would not use it for 
himself. He had entered upon the path of humili- 
ation and self-denial, and he trod it to the end. 
Satan had another arrow in his quiver. Failing to 
lead him to distrust he would lead him tot pre- 
sumption. " Thy trust is in God, then from this pin- 
nacle of the temple cast thyself down, relying upon 
his promise that the angels shall keep thee safe." 
Foiled the second time the Tempter made a third 
and last attack. " All the kingdoms of the world and 
the glory of them will I give thee, if thou wilt fall 
down :and worship me." That is to say, these shall 
be thine and thou shalt be mine. That is the consid- 
eration that underlies every promise Satan makes to 
men. Observe that these temptations are addressed 
to appetite, to pride, to ambition. They answer to 
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the 
pride of life, which John represents as the component 
elements of the world of sin. They are the points 
which determine the circumference of man's desires. 
There is no temptation which does not appeal to one 
or more of them. Satan brought to bear upon our 
Lord his whole armory, and in vanquishing these 
temptations Christ overcame all the might of hell. 

It is the second assault of Satan that invites our 
study now. " The devil taketh him to the holy city ; 
and he set him on the pinnacle of the temple r and 
saith unto him, If " that is one of Satan's favorite 



WRITTEN AGAIN 239 

words, sly, insinuating, venomous as a serpent " If 
thou art the Son of God, cast thyself down ; for it is 
written, He shall give his angels charge concerning 
thee : and on their hands they shall bear thee up, lest 
haply thou dash thy foot against a stone." Why was 
the pinnacle of the Temple chosen? To give sanctity 
to the deed, to array the suggestion of evil in the 
garb of religion, to deck presumption in the robes of 
faith. Surely here in thy Father's house thou may- 
est trust him, rest upon his promise. No harm can 
befall thee there. Satan is very religious, sets Jesus 
on the pinnacle of the Temple, and quotes Scripture. 
But there was another reason. The pinnacle of the 
Temple was the most conspicuous point in the holy 
city. The Temple was the center of the national life, 
and its courts were thronged with worshipers. 
Satan says : " Here before the eyes of the people give 
an exhibition of thy power. Cast thyself down and 
borne by angels thou shalt descend in safety to the 
earth. So shalt thou make known to Israel that thou 
art the Son of God, and they will crown thee King. 
Thus in a moment thou shalt win the promised 
Kingdom." God's way to the Kingdom lay through 
poverty and reproach and shame and sorrow and 
death. Satan bids him make a short cut, try an 
easier way. It is a familiar temptation, and myriads 
succumb to it every year. The way of excellence is 
the way of the cross. Toil and sacrifice and self- 
denial are the conditions of success in every sphere. 
Satan is constantly proposing some other and easier 
path. Men desire wealth. God's way to it lies 



240 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

i 

through hard and patient labor. They weary of it, 
they are in haste to be rich. They try short cuts to 
fortune. They forsake God's way for the Devil's 
way, and the penitentiaries are full of them. Men 
desire power, political preferment. God's way to 
attain it is in the way of honor, of integrity, of un- 
selfish devotion to the public interest. The people 
know their friends and they are not ungrateful. The 
course of our history is strewn with the ruined repu- 
tations and broken hearts of men who forsook the 
path of honor and sought place .and power by the 
low arts of the demagogue and the politician. Some 
of them were men of shining parts, of capacity to fill 
the highest places in the nation's gift. But they for- 
feited their self-respect and sold themselves for 
nothing, and died broken-hearted because after all 
their plotting and scheming they failed to win the 
prize. And even those who do by crooked paths 
climb to places of power, display upon their heads a 
foolscap and not a crown. We are all tempted to 
turn aside from God's way and seek the end of life 
by shorter and easier paths of our own devising. 

Satan is very cunning. Some men will bite at a 
naked hook. The lowest and most ignoble tempta- 
tion will win them. For other men sin must be dis- 
guised. Here he baits his hook with a text of Scrip- 
ture. He sets Jesus on the pinnacle of the Temple 
and there quotes Scripture to him. He tempts him 
to presumption, and calls it faith. But this is not 
faith. Faith is modest, humble; presumption is 
proud, vainglorious, always seeking to make a show 



WRITTEN AGAIN 241 

of itself. Faith is linked with obedience. You have 
no right to trust unless you obey. The promises are 
for the faithful. He is not a saint but a fool who 
thrusts his head into the lion's mouth and prays God 
to keep him. Let him run, and pray while he runs. 
The feet have a part to play on that prayer as well 
as the lips. 

The Devil can quote Scripture for his purpose. To 
be sure he knows his Bible better than many Chris- 
tians. He can lay his finger on the very passage that 
he needs. " He will give his angels charge over thee." 
The words that follow in the psalm he omits, " to 
keep thee in all thy ways."- Whether the omission 
is significant or not, our Lord did not stop to notice 
it. How did he meet the temptation? He met Scrip- 
ture with Scripture, wrested the weapon from the 
hand of Satan and turned it against him. " Again 
it is written, Thou shalt not make trial of the Lord 
thy God." We tempt God by putting his promises 
to a needless test. We say, God has promised this. 
I wonder if he will keep his promise. I will try and 
see. I will put him to the proof. Is that faith? We 
tempt him again if we seek to use his power for our 
own selfish ends, to pervert his promises to our own 
advantage, without regard to his purpose. That is 
to turn his power and his promises against himself, 
to make use of his grace to defeat his will. Christ's 
way was the way of the cross. In that way he had 
the promise of angel ministry. But if he can turn 
out of that way and still enjoy that ministry the 
promise defeats itself. Our way is the way of holi- 



242 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

ness, of self-denial, of cross-bearing, and all that way 
is strewn with promises. But if we forsake that way, 
presuming upon those promises, we make the grace 
of God the minister of sin. 

Our Lord answers Satan from the Word. He 
meets him upon our level. It was not the divine 
Man, if we dare so speak, it was the divine Word, 
that overcame the Tempter. He appealed to that 
Scripture which is given to us as to him, and in far 
more abundant measure, since the new Scripture is 
added to the old. He used a weapon that fits our 
hand, wielded a sword as keen in our grasp as in his. 
Do not stop to parley with the Tempter, to argue 
with him. Smite him with the sword of the Spirit, 
which is the Word of God. Be thankful that you can 
say, " It is written." You are not thrown back upon 
your own wisdom. Your safety does not hang upon 
your skill in logic. It is not a conflict of wits in 
which you are engaged. God has spoken and his 
word is preserved. He puts an answer in your 
mouth, a weapon in your hand. The weakest be- 
liever, who could not hold his own for one moment 
in argument, may arm himself with the wisdom of 
God. Let us be thankful that to every suggestion of 
the Evil One we may answer, " It is written." 

Lay great stress on that word "again." It is 
the key to the right use of the Scripture. The 
Bible is not a scrapbook and its truth cannot be 
drawn from isolated texts. The Greeks told the 
story of a man who offered his house for sale, 'and 
carried about with him one of the bricks of which 



WRITTEN AGAIN 243 

it was built to show what kind of house it was. 
You may almost as easily judge of the house from a 
single brick as of the Bible from a single text. All 
heresies are partial truths. Every one of them is 
built upon some portion of the Scripture, detached, 
isolated. Every system of iniquity that has ap- 
peared in Christendom has appealed to Scripture for 
support slavery, polygamy, the divine right of 
kings, religious persecution. So great and good a 
man as Augustine held that men' might be con- 
strained in the matter of religion by the strong arm 
of the civil power, and defended his position by the 
word of the master of the house in the parable of 
the Great Supper, Compel them to come in. The 
ultimate fruit of his teaching was the Inquisition. 
Bassanio says truly, " The world is still deceived 
with ornament. In law, what plea so tainted or cor- 
rupt, but being seasoned with a gracious voice ob- 
scures the show of evil? In religion, what damned 
error, but some sober brow will bless it, and approve 
it with a text, hiding the grossness with fair orna- 
ment? There is no vice so simple but assumes some 
mark of virtue on his outward parts." 

I can prove anything I please from the Bible if you 
will let me choose my texts, and will promise not to 
answer, " It is written again." Distrust the dogma 
that pins itself to a single verse. Suspect the 
doctrine for which you must hunt with a microscope. 
The great truths of Scripture are written boldly 
across the sacred page. You do not need to search 
for them. You have only to open your eyes to see 



244 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

them. Learn to take large views of truth. Commit 
yourself to the great currents of thought and purpose 
that flow through the Scripture from Genesis to 
Revelation. Do not fancy that you know your Bible 
when you can quote a hundred or a thousand verses. 
You must learn the relation of part to part, must 
throw the light of eyery portion of the Word upon 
every other portion, must blend the separate rays of 
law and psalm and prophecy and gospel and epistle 
to get the pure white light of truth. 

Satan tempts meta with Scripture to-day as he 
tempted Christ by presenting a fragment of the 
truth as the whole truth, by detaching a single text 
from its place and saying, This is the word of God. 
There are those whom he leads to presumption, as 
he sought to lead Christ. They turn to those pas- 
sages of the Word which speak of the love, the 
mercy, the long-suffering of God, and say, God is 
good. I may live as I please and it will be well with 
me in the end. I may fling myself down into the 
abyss of sin and he will give his angels charge over 
me. They close their ears to the threatenings of 
the law, are deaf to the thunder of Sinai. They hear 
the voice that says, God is love, but will not hear the 
same voice saying, God is a consuming fire. It is 
madness to trust the mercy that we reject ; to set our 
hope on the grace that we despise ; to say, Surely 
God will save me, even while we thrust away his 
hand, outstretched to save. Or if Satan cannot 
tempt men to presumption he seeks to drive them to 
despair. If he cannot persuade them from Scripture 



WRITTEN AGAIN 245 

that God is too merciful to punish he seeks to per- 
suade them that God is too just to pardon. How 
many souls has Satan buffeted and bruised with 
those words that speak of the unpardonable sin! 
There is a sin which hath no forgiveness, neither in 
this world nor in that which is to come. That is a 
dark saying, and the shadow that it casts has 
brooded over many hearts. May not I be guilty of 
that sin? May not I have crossed the line that 
divides God's mercy from his wrath? May it not be 
that for me alone of all God's creatures there is no 
hope, that neither repentance nor prayers nor tears 
can avail to open for me the gates of mercy? Many 
are they whom Satan has stabbed to the heart with 
this deadly weapon. It is their very faith in the 
Word that gives power to the thrust, that lays the 
soul open to the fiery darts of the Evil One. Some 
of the most earnest and devoted Christians I have 
ever known have been called to pass through this 
horror of great darkness. What is our defense when 
Satan turns Scripture against us? More Scripture. 
It is written yes but it is written again. You tell 
me of the unpardonable sin. It is true. I read it here 
But read on. It is written again, " Whosoever will, 
may come." " And him that cometh to me I will 
in no wise cast out." And now I know that if I want 
to come to him I am not guilty of that sin. The un- 
pardonable sin is the sin of him who will not be 
saved. He only is thrust out who will not come On. 
So long as there is in my heart a single spark of love 
for God, of desire for righteousness, so long I know 



246 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

the Spirit is striving with me. If he were withdrawn, 
I should be hardened, sensible to fear indeed, keenly 
alive, it may be, to the terrors of the law, filled with 
forebodings of judgment; but I cannot love God and 
righteousness in any degree unless the Spirit dwell 
in my heart. And the gates of heaven are never 
closed against him in whom the Spirit makes his 
home. 

Whenever Satan finds in the Word a weapon you 
may find there a shield. 

Satan quotes from the Psalms. They traverse the 
whole range of human thought and feeling from the 
depths of sin to the heights of glory. Here is the 
cry of the repentant soul for pardon, of the troubled 
soul for rest. Here are the loftiest raptures of the 
redeemed, the joys unspeakable and full of glory. 
The psalmist spake out of his own experience, and 
his experience is ours. Heart answers to heart. The 
Psalms are the holy place of the Old Scripture, as 
the Gospels are the holy place of the New. From the 
Psalms Satan quotes. He does not scruple to enter 
the inner sanctuary and lay his hand on the ark of 
God. He plays on the tenderest feelings, the most 
sacred emotions of the soul. And the words seem to 
bear the meaning that he puts upon them. Here is 
the promise. Why not trust it ? Christ answers him 
from the law. It is written in the Psalms. Yes but 
it is written again in the law. The law is the final 
test. In each temptation Christ appealed to it. You 
must submit to the law every doctrine, every emo- 
tion, every experience. The Christian life is not wild 



WRITTEN AGAIN 247 

and lawless. Every thought and feeling of the heart 
must bear the yoke. Our hearts may deceive us. 
There are forms of excitement, emotion, that we 
term religious which have no right to the name. 
Here is the written Word. Try the spirits, whether 
they be of God. By this standard test every ex- 
perience. Does it incline you to keep the law? Can 
you harness it to the service of God? The emotions 
and aspirations that make us discontented with our 
lot, that end with themselves, and cannot be put to 
use, are not born of the Spirit. The highest ex- 
perience possible to human nature, the utmost reach 
of our capacity, is to love God. And what is this 
love of God? Is it high and rapturous emotion? Is 
it an ecstatic and uplifting mood? The apostle of 
love defines it " This is the love of God, that we 
keep his commandments." Love is the fulfilling of 
the law. 

Now we can appreciate the purpose for which the 
law was given. It seems to us hard and stern. It 
denies, it forbids, it hedges in our way on every 
hand. Satan tries to set us against the command- 
ments, to play off the love of God against the law of 
God. But what is the aim and purpose of the law ? 
When Christ was tempted he took shelter in the law. 
" It is written." The law is given for safety, for de- 
fense. It is the strong tower into which the right- 
eous runneth and is safe. When the wolf is near 
shall the sheep complain that the wall is high and 
strong? Gibraltar is not so beautiful as a flower 
garden, but in time of peril men leave the roses for 



248 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

the rocks. The world is a battle field. L,ife is a war- 
fare. The foe is grim and strong, and if we trust in 
ourselves we are lost. But God has reared for us 
this impregnable fortress of the law. It shuts us in 
that it may shut the Tempter out. When we have no 
answer of our own to the whisper of evil we can 
reply, " It is written." God shuts us up in the law as 
he shut up Noah in the ark, to save us. " Thou shalt 
not " may seem to us harsh and forbidding as it falls 
upon our ears again and again. But when we have 
found in it a place of refuge, when we have seen 
Satan retire from it baffled and beaten, when the 
law has been to us a buckler tried and proved on 
many a hard fought field, we shall learn to thank 
God for it and shall hear the accents of love in the 
stern notes of the law as well as in the tender tones 
of the gospel. He who gave us his Son gave us his 
law, and both are given in love. The law is not a 
prison but a fortress. Nothing is commanded in the 
law that will not bring a blessing, nothing is for- 
bidden that would not bring a curse. We run 
against the law only when we seek to go astray. 

The Word of God is at one with itself. There is 
no discord between the law of Moses and the Psalms 
of David. The thunders of Sinai blend in unison 
with the notes of David's harp. Faith and works, 
love and duty, emotion and obedience go together. 
The law underlies all Scripture, as it underlies all 
experience, all life ; for the law is the will of him by 
whom the universe is ordered. Beneath the flowers 
that bloom bright and beautiful is the enduring 



WRITTEN AGAIN 249 

granite. " The grass withereth, the flower fadeth ; 
but the word of our God shall stand for ever." Our 
fitful emotions and experiences are ever changing, 
but the soul that is established upon the eternal rock 
of the divine law shall never be moved. To build 
upon ourselves is to build upon the sand, to build 
upon the Word is to build upon the rock. " The 
world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that 
doeth the will of God abideth for ever." 

Know your Bible, my friend. Be so familiar with 
it that at every suggestion of evil the fitting answer 
will spring at once to your lips. Every day is a bat- 
tle. Do not leave your armor at home. Acquaint 
yourselves with all Scripture. Then Satan cannot 
deceive you. When he urges, It is written, you may 
answer, It is written again. Train your children in 
the knowledge of God's Word. You are anxious to 
prepare them for life. Furnish them from the Word. 
Jesus learned the Scripture from Joseph and Mary. 
Church and school cannot take the place of home. 
Father and mother cannot shift their responsibility. 
You can give to your children nothing that will be 
such a safeguard in the hours of trial that lie before 
them as the knowledge of God's Word. That Word 
is both sword and shield, and he who is thus armed 
cannot be overcome. He shall withstand in the evil 
day, and having done all, shall stand. 



250 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

XIX 

THE SYMMETRY OF LIFE 

" Yea, and for this very cause adding on your part all 
diligence, in your faith supply virtue; and in your virtue 
knowledge; and in your knowledge self-control; and in 
your self-control patience; and in your patience godliness; 
and in your godliness brotherly kindness; and in your 
brotherly kindness love." 

II Peter 1:5-7 

" For this very cause " throws us back upon the 
verse preceding. God has done great things for you, 
do you therefore act your part. To the divine grace 
which is given you add your own diligence. What 
has God done? He has called you by his own glory 
and virtue. The whole energy of the divine nature 
is thrown into the divine call. It involves the 
election of the Father, the atonement of the Son, the 
effectual working of the Spirit. And having called 
you he gives you all things that pertain to life and 
godliness, all that is necessary to lead a godly life 
here and reach heaven beyond. It is his purpose 
that you shall become partakers of the divine nature, 
shall be renewed in the whole man after the image 
of God. 

It is often said that the doctrine of election 
destroys the motives that lead to a holy life. If I 
am elected I shall be saved, do what I may. I need 
not concern myself about the way, for the end is 
sure. A good Methodist woman whom I knew used 
to say that Presbyterians were dangerous people, for 



THE SYMMETRY OF LIFE 251 

they taught that what is to be will be. I suppose we 
shall have to plead guilty. But we believe as the 
Scripture teaches, that God ordains the means as 
well as the end. If he calls me to eternal life, he 
calls me to repentance and faith and good works ; 
and if these are wanting I have no claim to a place 
among the elect- He who is elected to heaven is 
elected to holiness, and no man can read his title 
clear to mansions in the skies unless he is trying to 
do the will of God. Only as I am in the way have I 
reason to hope that I may reach the end. 

There are those who regard salvation as a bargain 
concluded in a moment. They get religion, and the 
work is done, as the title to property is passed by a 
stroke of the pen. " 'Tis done, the great trans- 
action's done." Religion is a clever contrivance by 
which God kindly engages to become responsible for 
our souls that we may give ourselves with undivided 
attention to the pursuit of the world. Make your 
peace with God; then your future is assured, and 
your life is henceforth your own. But the work of 
salvation is not finished when you have been born 
again ; it is only begun. The new birth introduces 
you to a new life. To be born is only the beginning 
of living. The cradle is neither the dwelling place 
nor the goal, but the starting point of life. God 
gives the life, we must live it. God gives us grace, 
we must use it. God gives us salvation, we must 
work it out. Remember it is the believer to whom 
that command is given, Work out your own salva- 
tion. To the Jailer who asked, " What must I do to 



252 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

be saved?" Paul said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus, 
and thou shalt be saved." He could not work out his 
salvation until he had received it, any more than a 
man can live before he is born. To 1 work out your 
own salvation is not to work out a salvation of your 
own. God opens the gate of heaven, invites us to 
come, prepares the way, offers guidance and help ; 
but we must make the journey step by step. He 
will help us but he will not carry us. The gate is 
open, the way prepared, but we must climb. One 
man was borne to heaven in a chariot of fire only 
one. The rest of us must walk. It is a long journey 
and all the way uphill. Elijah's chariot is not 
running. 

So much God has done, calling us and giving us 
all that we need. What remains for us to do Peter 
goes on to show. " Adding on your part all dili- 
gence." You must throw yourself into the work. 
God is in earnest, you must be in earnest. Your 
salvation cost God the blood of his only-begotten 
Son; shall it cost you nothing? God labored, 
suffered, sacrificed that you might be saved ; do you 
think that you have nothing to do? You work hard 
for the little bit of earth you get; shall you have 
heaven for nothing? For every dollar you earn you 
must pay in honest labor ; shall grace and righteous- 
ness and truth and the likeness of God be had for 
naught? Lowell tells us indeed, " 'Tis heaven alone 
that is given away; 'Tis only God may be had for 
the asking." Salvation is free. But we must not 
forget that the Master bade us strive, agonize, to 



THE SYMMETRY OF LIFE 253 

enter in. God gives freely, but it is hard for us to 
take. The gate is open, but the way is long. 

God has elected you and called you to be the heirs 
of his Kingdom. What then? Take your ease? 
No. Give diligence to make your calling and elec- 
tion sure. To God's grace add your diligence. It is 
easy to become a Christian, it is hard to be a Chris- 
tian. The hardest task that any man can undertake 
is to lead a Christian life in this evil world. It re- 
quires all diligence, the continued exercise of every 
power and energy that we possess. But it is worth 
it all. " In your faith supply virtue." The Christian 
life is not a mere matter of addition. Modern psy- 
chology lays great stress upon the unity of the soul. 
It cannot be divided into faculties or groups of 
faculties separated by rigid walls of partition. There 
is one living intelligence, manifesting itself now as 
thought, now as emotion, now as will. We do not 
simply add grace to grace as if they were separate 
and distinct. The graces of the Christian life are 
indissolubly linked together. They spring from a 
common root. They are vitally related as manifesta- 
tions of one life. Grace for grace is the divine order. 
As grace is exercised new grace is given ; and every 
grace received and employed draws others after it. 

The law of growth in nature and in grace is sym- 
metry. Life tends to develop in all directions, so 
far as it is free. The Christian life ought to be 
symmetrical, well-rounded. The word rendered 
" supply " suggests a beautiful figure. It comes 
from the root from which our word " chorus " is 



254 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

drawn. The Christian character should be like a 
well-balanced and perfectly trained chorus, in which 
every member bears his part, and all unite in swell- 
ing harmony to lift the song of praise. 

That is the ideal that invites us. But we fall far 
short of it. We incline by nature to cultivate the 
easy virtues, the congenial graces. Character de- 
velops along the line of least resistance. We ought 
not to grow in a straight line. Life should throw 
out its branches like a tree on every side. But we 
are one-sided, lopsided. We develop the graces that 
are in harmony with our inclinations, and the others 
are neglected. We do what we like to do. We try 
to fashion grace after the model of nature, cut the 
new life after the pattern of the old. Let us make 
the personal application. You are by temperament 
ardent, active, energetic. You want to be doing 
something. You are quick in act, hasty in speech. 
Suppose you take a course of lessons in patience, in 
charity, in thoughtfulness and see what you make of 
it. We sometimes wonder when we see those who 
have been most active and useful in the service of 
God laid aside by sickness or infirmity. Has God so 
many faithful servants that he can afford to dismiss 
them? Why does he hide them in the sick room 
when the Church and the world are in such need of 
their service? We must recognize the physical 
causes that are at work. The ardent, energetic 
spirit often drives the body beyond its strength and 
whether we serve God or the world we pay the pen- 
alty if we transgress the laws of health. We often 



THE SYMMETRY OF LIFE 255 

cast upon providence the blame of our own mis- 
deeds, and complain of God for inflicting what we 
brought upon ourselves. Sometime ago I was talk- 
ing with a woman who had recently lost her hus- 
band. She told me how he had lived in violation of 
the simplest laws of health, and in the next breath 
exclaimed, "Why did God take him from me?" 
When I was a boy there was an elder in my father's 
church who was a great sufferer from dyspepsia ; and 
I used to wonder in my childish way that so good a 
man should be so sorely afflicted. But when I sat 
at his table the mystery was solved. It was not 
providence that gave him dyspepsia, it was the 
bread. What he needed was not to pray, but to gt 
another cook. Piety is no protection against sour 
bread. 

Yet, of course, above all is the overruling provi- 
dence of God. And we may catch a glimpse of his 
purpose in permitting those who are engaged in his 
service to be laid aside. It is often true that they 
are growing one-sided. They are cultivating one 
set of virtues at the expense of others. They are 
becoming deformed, misshapen. They are so busy 
in attending to other matters that they neglect the 
care of their own souls. They have little time for 
study, for meditation, for prayer. They grow 
nervous and irritable and censorious. God will not 
have it so. He says to them : " You have done 
enough. It is time that you thought of yourself, 
gave heed to your own spiritual life. You find no 
leisure for communion with God, for the study of the 



256 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

Word, and you are growing narrow and superficial. 
I will rob you of your strength, in which you make 
your boast, I will shut you up in your room alone 
with me, where you must think and read and pray. 
I will make you know yourself, discover your weak- 
nesses, your sins. You have been so busy attending 
to your neighbor's faults that you have forgotten 
your own. I will bring them to your remembrance, 
and set conscience at work upon them. You have 
learned the lessons of diligence and perseverance 
and unwearied toil; you shall learn the lessons of 
patience and meekness and love." That is the high- 
est course in the school of God. And he lays them 
upon their backs that they may look up. 

Or you are by nature of a quiet, contemplative 
disposition. You cherish in your secret heart a 
touch of contempt for the nervous, fussy people, who 
have not learned the secret of peace, but are always 
in motion, skipping about like grasshoppers, and ac- 
complishing as much. Yours is a life of quietness, 
of dignified repose. You enjoy your religion. You 
like to come to church. You like to think that you 
are numbered among the elect, and that heaven is 
yours. Your life is one-sided, too. You have obeyed 
the word, " Come " ; but you are deaf to the word 
" Go." The command is, " Follow me," and you 
cannot follow the Lord Jesus by sitting still. He 
went about doing good. You must bestir yourself 
if you would keep up with your Master. Sometimes 
he worked all day and prayed all night. Perhaps 
you think you are praying when you are only dream- 



THE SYMMETRY OF LIFE 257 

ing ; perhaps you think you are meditating when you 
are only dozing. Try a little labor, a little sacrifice. 
Trouble your ease, break up your repose and see how 
you like it. If you will not do it, God may do it for 
you. Many a snug nest does he overturn, that his 
children may learn to mount up with wings as 
eagles. And we cry, " O God, I was so comfortable ; 
why should I be disturbed?" It is easy to flatter 
ourselves that we are pretty fair Christians so long 
as we contemplate our favorite virtues, our pet 
graces. We are very religious, so long as religion 
does not interfere with our desires. But let it cross 
our inclinations, let it thwart our wishes, let it com- 
mand what is distasteful, and we shall see how much 
we love it. We are on good terms with God so long 
as he takes good care of us and lets us pursue our 
chosen way. Our prayer may be, O God, let me 
alone. When he seeks to turn us out of the path of 
our will, then we are put to the test. When we feel 
the rein we rebel. 

We cannot trace in detail the unfolding of the 
Christian life as it is depicted here. Grace leads to 
grace. Faith leads to virtue, that energy of the soul 
which expresses itself in a life of holy activity and 
power. Faith is the surrender of the life to God ; 
virtue is the ordering of the life according to the will 
of God. Virtue is faith in action. But in the con- 
duct of the life there is need of knowledge, practical 
judgment, that the activity may not be misdirected 
and barren. With this goes self-control, the mastery 
of self, for if this be wanting unbridled appetite and 



258 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

untamed passion will wreck and ruin. Man is the 
only being in the universe, so far as we know, that 
possesses a divided nature. Every other creature is 
either good or bad. Man alone is both good and bad, 
capable of rising to heaven, of sinking to hell. In 
this divided nature lies the tragedy of our life. Then 
comes patience, which includes both steadfast en- 
durance of evil and unwearied perseverance in good 
works. " Let patience have its perfect work, that ye 
may be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing." 
James 1:4. How we mar the work of God by our 
impatience, as if the marble should twist and squirm 
under the tool of the sculptor. How would the 
statue appear when the work was done? Patience in 
its highest sense is loving submission to the. will of 
the heavenly Father, that he may accomplish in us 
the full purpose of his grace. 

These are the virtues which belong to Christian 
character in itself. Then follow the virtues which 
are involved in our relations to others ; godliness, the 
reverence and obedience we owe to our Maker: 
brotherly kindness, which we owe to all those who 
bear with us the name of Christ ; and crowning and 
comprehending all, summing up in itself as the ful- 
filling of the law all the duties we owe to God, to our 
Christian brethren, to the world, is love, the con- 
summate grace and perfect flower of the Christian 
life. 

Let us observe that the Christian life does not 
develop these graces in chronological order, one 
after another, but altogether ; as the several parts in 



THE SYMMETRY OF LIFE 259 

the chorus do not succeed each other, so that now 
one is heard alone and now another, but blend to- 
gether in harmony. 

Passing by the others with this brief mention, let 
us fix our thoughts upon the first and the last of this 
chain of Christian graces. The Christian life begins 
with faith. That too is of God. For Christian char- 
acter is a divine creation. " By grace have ye been 
saved through faith ; and that not of yourselves, it 
is the gift of God ; not of works, that no man should 
glory. For we are his workmanship, created in 
Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore pre- 
pared that we should walk in them." Eph. 2:8-10. 
God must renew us, we cannot renew ourselves. 
The first step upon our part is the yielding of our- 
selves to him. God is not working with clay or 
stones, but with spirits that were made in his own 
image. He will not renew us unless we surrender 
ourselves to him. That is the reason why such value 
is attached to faith as the initial and determining 
grace of the Christian life. Its importance lies in the 
fact that it throws the soul open to God to do with 
it as he will. It is not simply laying hold of God, it 
is letting God lay hold of us. It is therefore the 
starting point, the foundation of Christian character. 
God will not enter your heart against your will. He 
will knock at the door but he will not break it down. 
Faith opens the door and lets him in. No other 
grace of the Christian life is possible without faith, 
for until faith has played its part God is shut out of 
the soul. The first step in the Christian life is to 



260 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

give yourself to God by faith, and he will develop in 
you the graces of his Kingdom. 

As Christian character begins with faith so it 
terminates with love, the perfect and consummate 
grace which comprehends all others. It is always 
represented as the crowning glory of the Christian 
life. We call Paul the apostle of faith, James the 
apostle of works, Peter the apostle of hope, John the 
apostle of love ; but they all bear witness to the pre- 
eminence of love and with one voice accord it the 
highest place. 

Why is it? 

Love is the godlike grace. Faith and hope spring 
from the weakness of the creature. They speak of 
our infirmities, our limitations, our insufficiency. 
They attest our dependence. They distinguish us, 
set us apart, from God. God does not believe, God 
does not hope. We believe because we do not know, 
we hope because we do not have. But love identifies 
us with God. God loves, and we love because he 
first loved us. If there be in your heart one spark 
of pure, unselfish love to God or man, it was kindled 
in the breast of God. Love is the divine image. 
Love is the divine nature of which we are to become 
partakers. Through love is our communion with 
God made perfect. " God is love ; and he that abid- 
eth in love abideth in God, and God abideth in him." 
I John 4:16. Through love we are renewed in his 
likeness. Love makes the soul godlike. Paul prayed 
for the Ephesians : " That Christ may dwell in your 
hearts through faith ; to the end that ye, being rooted 



THE SYMMETRY OF LIFE 261 

and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend 
with all the saints what is the breadth and length 
and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ 
which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled unto 
all the fulness of God." Eph. 3:17-19. If God is 
love, we are like God as love is lord of the life. 

Love is the most useful of the Christian graces. 
Service is the law of the Kingdom. The highest 
place is the place of the servant. " Whosoever 
would become great among you," said Jesus to the 
Twelve, " shall be your minister ; and whosoever 
would be first among you shall be your servant: 
even as the Son of man came not to be ministered 
unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom 
for many." Matt. 20 :26-28. And again, " Which is 
greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? 
is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am in the midst 
of you as he that serveth." Luke 22 :27. Love takes 
its place with the Master. It is the grace that serves. 
Without it what we have is shut up in our own 
hearts and lives. Faith opens the door for grace to 
flow in ; love opens the door for grace to flow out. 
Faith is the grace that takes ; love is the grace that 
gives ; and " it is more blessed to give than to re- 
ceive." Love acts the part of God, who delights to 
give, and imparts himself without measure. Faith 
is narrow, personal, exclusive, love is wide as the 
world. Faith is the root-virtue of the Christian 
life, but love is the fruit, and the fruit is the final 
cause for which the root is ordained. 

God does not save you merely for your own sake. 



262 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

He is looking beyond you to some one else. There is 
some one whom he would reach through you. He 
called you that through you he might lay hold of 
your neighbor, your friend, your child. God could 
speak to men without us sometimes he does. But 
generally he speaks to men through men. There is 
only one instance in the New Testament of the con- 
version of a soul by the immediate agency of God 
without the ministry of man. That was the case of 
Saul of Tarsus. He was so strong and masterful 
that the risen Christ came to him in person. Ordi- 
narily when God wants a man he sends another man 
after him. He will send you if you will obey him. 
He needs you, he needs every man, woman, child, 
for there are many more outside the Church than 
there are inside. It is the office of love to minister, 
to bring the knowledge and the grace of God to sin- 
ful souls. 

In face of the explicit and repeated teaching of 
Scripture we fall into the habit of thinking of love 
rather as an ornament of the Christian life, elegant 
but superfluous, an optional grace, a work of super- 
erogation. We must be honest and just and true, 
but we may love or not, as we please. If you should 
say to a Christian man, " You are untruthful, you 
are dishonest, you are unclean," he would resent it 
bitterly. For these qualities he conceives to be the 
essentials of right living. But if you should say to 
him, " You are lacking in the grace of love," prob- 
ably he would not be much disturbed. Yet the 
Scripture represents love not so much as a simple 



THE SYMMETRY OF LIFE 263 

exercise or grace of the renewed soul, but rather as 
the disposition or temper of the soul, controlling all 
its moods and motives and expressions, all its exer- 
cises and experiences. It is the grace which gives 
character and worth to all our actions. Paul takes 
up one by one the gifts and actions on which men 
pride themselves in the Christian life prophecy and 
knowledge and the faith that works miracles, and 
almsgiving and martyrdom, and pronounces them 
all worthless in the sight of God without love. Love 
furnishes the motive that alone renders our gifts and 
sacrifices acceptable to God. Love sets the stamp 
of the Kingdom on our words and deeds, which else 
are counterfeit. If love be wanting in us the very 
essential image of God is wanting ; for if he is love, 
how can we be partakers of the divine nature with- 
out love? 

Faith begins, love crowns the work of our salva- 
tion, the edifice of Christian character. It begins 
with the surrender of the soul to God that he may 
accomplish in us all his good pleasure. It terminates 
in a life renewed in every part in the image of God, 
in holiness and love, obedient to his will, and bear- 
ing rich fruit to his praise. 

" If these things are yours and abound, they make 
you to be not idle nor unfruitful unto the knowledge 
of our Lord Jesus Christ." The Christian life 
diffuses blessings on its heavenward way, as the 
river in its swift rush to the sea turns the wheels of 
a hundred mills, gives drink to the thirsty fields, and 
marks its course by the beauty and fertility that 



264 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

spring up on either side. The life is hid with Christ 
in God and draws from the unfailing springs of life 
and power. Faith receives from God, love imparts 
to the world. The true life is always receiving from 
God, always giving to men. God gives through us. 
God makes us dependent upon him to keep us near 
his side ; dependent upon each other to draw us close 
together. What I have is not my own, I hold it in 
trust for you. What you have is not your own, you 
hold it in trust for me. That is the way God binds 
us together. He will not suffer us each to take his 
portion and go off by himself like greedy children. 
We must share with our neighbor. That is true of 
our life in every sphere; it is true of the Christian 
life. Election to heaven is election to holiness. The 
call to salvation is a call to service. If God has 
chosen and called me, that is no reason to take my 
ease. It is the reason why I should give all dili- 
gence, supply in turn every grace and virtue of the 
Christian life, and see that I am not idle nor un- 
fruitful, that I may make my calling and election 
sure. 

Such is the nature, the growth, the fruit of the 
Christian life. Mark how glorious is the issue. Do 
you on your part supply grace after grace and there 
shall be richly supplied unto you the entrance into 
the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ. Paul speaks of those who enter heaven 
saved as through fire, like Lot fleeing from Sodom, 
themselves barely escaped, while all their life work 
is consumed in the mighty conflagration that wraps 



THE SYMMETRY OF LIFE 265 

the globe in flames. These are they whose Christian 
life is undeveloped; poor, negligent, careless Chris- 
tians. Yet because there is in their hearts the germ 
of faith God mercifully grants them entrance to his 
Kingdom, though they come with empty hands. 
But the diligent and faithful disciple, who has sought 
to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord 
Jesus, and to do his duty toward God and his fellow 
men, to him is accorded an abundant, a triumphal 
entrance. He sweeps through the gates a conqueror 
from life's battle field, is greeted with the approba- 
tion of his Lord, and exalted to the place of dignity 
and power promised to him that overcometh. Be 
not content, my friends, barely to creep inside the 
gate. Strive to enter as a victor, that you may lay 
your honors at the feet of your Saviour. 

Let God have you, my friend. He wants you. He 
will make you what you ought to be. You have been 
trying to do for yourself, perhaps, and you have 
made poor work of it. Let God try. Let him work 
in you, work with him. God calls you, God gives 
you exceeding great and precious promises, God 
proffers you all that is needful for a holy life, gives 
you his Word, his Son, his Spirit, opens to you the 
gates of his Kingdom. Yield yourself to him. Set 
yourself diligently and earnestly to do his will. 
Then shall your soul be renewed in the likeness of 
God, your life shall prove a blessing to the world 
and you shall inherit the Kingdom. 



266 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

XX 

THE THOUGHTS OF LOVE 

" Love taketh not account of evil." 



I Cor. 13:5 



The word " charity " is unhappily chosen, for it 
has led many to suppose that the grace commended 
in this chapter is almsgiving. It is love of which 
Paul speaks. God is love. The soul renewed in the 
divine image must reflect that love. Love is the 
vital principle and motive power of the new life in 
Christ. Without it all else is vain. Knowledge, 
faith, giving of alms, even martyrdom profit nothing 
if love be wanting, for God looketh on the heart. 
Motive gives quality to action. What you do de- 
pends largely on circumstances ; why you do it de- 
pends upon yourself. 

Paul we term the apostle of faith, James the apos- 
tle of works, and John the apostle of love. Yet each 
of them gives the first place to love. Love is first, 
because love is godlike. Faith and hope belong to 
the weakness of the creature, spring from our im- 
perfection. Love belongs to the perfection of the 
Creator. God does not believe, God does not hope, 
but God is love. It is greater than the other graces 
of the Christian life because it includes them all. 
" As every lovely hue is light, so every grace is 
love." It embraces faith and hope, for " it believeth 
all things, hopeth all things." Faith is the begin- 



THE THOUGHTS OF LOVE 267 

ning, love the consummation of the Christian life. 
When you have learned to love there is nothing 
beyond except to love more. 

In this chapter Paul has drawn a full-length por- 
trait of love. It is the only grace of Christian char- 
acter to which such honor is accorded in Scripture. 
He dwells upon it as the artist lingers over the can- 
vas, loath to leave it, adding a touch here and a touch 
there, trying to embody in visible form the beauty 
that charms his soul. Among its many excellences 
is this, "love thinketh no evil," as the Authorized 
Version puts it ; or as the Revised Version renders, 
" taketh not account of evil." 

It is hard enough to refrain from doing evil or 
speaking evil. We are drawn to it from without, 
driven to it from within. But love " taketh not ac- 
count of evil," lays the hand of restraint even on 
the thoughts of the heart and will not suffer them 
to transgress. Love governs hands and lips through 
the heart. Purify the fountain and the stream is 
pure. A clean heart makes a clean life. Three ques- 
tions press upon us: Do you work evil? Do you 
speak evil? Do you think evil? 

Two interpretations are given of this character- 
ization of love. 

(1) Love is slow to suspect evil. 

Love makes allowances, puts the best construction 
on the acts and motives of men, looks on the bright 
side, the better side, would rather think well of a 
man than ill. And if it is forced to recognize evil, 
it regards the sinner more in sorrow than in anger. 



268 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

A jealous, suspicious nature is always in trouble. 
A man of that disposition is constantly wounded by 
his friends ; for it is like raw flesh that smarts at the 
slightest touch. If you are on the watch for slights, 
you will find them in plenty even where they do not 
exist. We have all known persons so thin-skinned 
that you can scarcely touch them without gloves. 
You can hardly speak without offending them ; yet 
if you are silent they are grieved. 

It is evident enough that the love that thinks no 
evil does not rule the world. There are those who 
esteem it a mark of mental superiority to regard life 
habitually from its worst side. They are like vul- 
tures with a keen scent for carrion. They say, Men 
are all selfish. I have lost all faith in human nature. 
Every man has his price. Politics, business, society, 
all are corrupt. Good men are only those who have 
not been found out. When you find a man who says, 
I have no faith in men ; there is no such thing as 
virtue in the world ; vice and hypocrisy divide it be- 
tween them watch him. He will bear watching. 
When old Dr. Johnson was told of some one who 
maintained that there is no distinction between 
virtue and vice, he said : " Why, sir, if the fellow 
does not think as he speaks, he is lying; and I see 
not what honor he can propose to himself from 
having the character of a liar. But if he does really 
think that there is no distinction between virtue and 
vice why, sir, when he leaves our houses let us count 
our spoons." It is a bad sign when a man sees 
nothing in the world but evil. You may conclude 



THE THOUGHTS OF LOVE 269 

that he judges others by himself. The world is- all 
yellow to the jaundiced eye. He who distrusts 
everybody, if not himself dishonest, is yet morose, 
unsympathetic, selfish, if just not generous. 

There are those who pride themselves upon their 
knowledge of the world, who boast of their skill in 
reading human nature, when they are acquainted 
with only the lower and meaner side of either. They 
have gone through the byways and explored the 
alleys of society, have rummaged in their neighbor's 
garbage can, and have drawn their conclusions. Is 
that to know the world? Because you have spent 
years in a hospital or an insane asylum, are 1 you 
therefore qualified to pass judgment on mankind? 
The city of Cologne was once famed for its ill odors. 
Coleridge recognized seventy-two distinct stenches. 
In the midst of the city rises a magnificent cathedral, 
one of the noblest monuments man has ever reared 
to the praise of God. Suppose I tell you I have vis- 
ited the city, and you ask me, " How were you im- 
pressed with the great cathedral?" I answer: " I did 
not enter it, nor even see it. I spent my time in the 
alleys trying to find the seventy-two odors of which 
Coleridge speaks. And I found most of them." 
Have I seen the city? That is the way some men see 
the world. They are bats, at home only in the 
darkness. They have a keen ear for discords, but 
are deaf to harmony; an eye quick to discover de- 
formity and sin, blind to beauty and to grace. It is 
better to be deceived a hundred times than to trust 
no one, better to lose money than to lose your faith 



270 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

in man. What we look for we shall find. Look for 
untruthfulness, dishonesty and you will find them. 
And in your search you may grow color-blind until 
you can see nothing else. Look for truth and honor 
and fidelity, and you will find them, not always, but 
often enough to keep alive your faith in human na- 
ture. The happy and the useful man is he who be- 
lieves supremely in God, and with due reserve in his 
fellow men. 

Sometimes evil presents itself so gross and pal- 
pable that it cannot be suffered to pass unnoticed. 
We are forced to take knowledge of it, to recognize 
its character. What does love do then? It " re- 
joiceth not in unrighteousness." There are other 
ways of rejoicing in iniquity besides practicing it. 
There are those who are always on the watch for it. 
They jump at conclusions, put the worst construc- 
tion on everything. If a man gives, he is ostenta- 
tious ; if he does not give, he is mean. If he is active, 
he is ambitious and officious ; if he is not active, he is 
careless and indolent. If he does well, it is for effect ; 
if he does ill, it is only what they expected. They 
misrepresent, they exaggerate. Beneath the glass of 
their fancy the molehill becomes a mountain. They 
carry their budget of news from house to house. 
Have you heard the latest? With a smirk on their 
faces they say, Isn't it too bad ! These are scandal- 
mongers that trundle their garbage carts all through 
society and poison the air we breathe. If a wolf be 
injured or disabled, the pack set upon him and de- 
vour him. The same spirit is often seen in men. 



THE THOUGHTS OF LOVE 271 

Paul said, " If a man be overtaken in any trespass, 
ye who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit 
of gentleness; looking to thyself, lest thou also be 
tempted." Society often says, If a man be over- 
taken in a fault, tear him to pieces. 

Peter bids us, " Above all things be fervent in 
your love among yourselves; for love covereth a 
multitude of sins." Love takes no pleasure in sin, 
seeks to hide it out of sight, is quick to forgive, to 
help, to restore the sinner. If it must speak it speaks 
in sadness. If it must punish, it is as a mother pun- 
ishes her child, not in anger but with the purpose 
to save. 

(2) Love is slow to impute evil. 

This is more precisely what Paul has in mind. 
Love holds no grudge, does not harbor malice, or 
lay up men's ill deeds against them. There are those 
who keep a debit and credit account with their neigh- 
bors, setting down on one side all the benefits, on the 
other all the injuries they receive. They purpose to 
return good for good and evil for evil. They count 
it unmanly to forget a friend or to forgive a foe. 
That is the way of the world. Love thinks no evil, 
keeps no reckonings of the wrongs it suffers, is glad 
to forgive and forget. Is that easy? Try it and see. 
Put away .every thought of unkindness from your 
heart toward the man who has wronged you most 
deeply, insulted you, outraged you, defamed you. 
Sometimes we fancy love is sentimental, weak, 
effeminate. Measure it by what it does. The very 
hardest task that can be laid upon human nature, 



272 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

love and love alone performs. Summon the strength 
of your manhood of which you boast, and see if you 
can cast out every bitter thought from your heart. 
Now let love come in, and love will do it. Love is 
the mightiest power in the world, because love alone 
will give us the victory over self. Sometimes we 
say, I will forgive, but I cannot forget. We repeat 
the tale of our wrongs to all we meet, blacken the 
character of the man with whom we have a quarrel, 
and conclude with the pious remark, " But I would 
not harm him for the world." Tear his good name 
to tatters, set his friends against him, brand him a 
thief, a liar but harm him not for the world. Is 
that forgiveness? 

Love is ready to forgive because it is not thinking 
of self. If self be the center and the sum of my re- 
gard, if I am concerned only for my dignity, my 
rights, my interests, every offense against me is a 
blow at the heart of the universe. He who treads on 
my toes tramples on the Ten Commandments. To 
run counter to my wishes is to break the whofle 
moral law at once. We look at everything from the 
standpoint of self. We say, Ptolemy and Copernicus 
were both in error. The center of the solar system 
is neither the earth nor the sun. It is here. Where 
I stand is the hub of the universe. In love self is 
forgotten. Love does not ask first, What is this to 
me? How does this affect me? There are larger 
considerations. Love is humble, forgetful of self, 
thoughtful of others. He who wrongs me does him- 
self far deeper wrong. He may harm me in body or 



THE THOUGHTS OF LOVE 273 

estate, he wounds his own soul. Love bids me think 
of him, pity him. Love teaches me to look upon him 
with the eye of God, whom we have all offended 
sorely, yet who waits and longs to forgive us all. 

Sometimes we deem it unmanly to forgive. Men 
and nations prate of honor, and believe that insulted 
honor must be appeased with blood. The plot of 
many of our popular romances turns upon revenge. 
In the crowded theater, amid thunders of applause, 
the curtain falls upon the hero standing triumphant 
over the body of his foe, whom he has long pursued 
and at length has smitten to the earth. From scenes 
like these myriads of men and women draw their 
conception of heroism, and forgiveness appears weak 
and contemptible beside the prowess that washes 
away the stain of insult in blood. But once again 
measure love by what it achieves. Forgive, and you 
conquer the evil passions of your own heart. Hatred 
and anger and malice rise up within you and clamor 
for revenge. You deny them, you subdue them. 
From this conflict the soul emerges master of itself. 
" He that ruleth his spirit " is greater " than he that 
taketh a city." Is he strong who cannot control his 
own passions? Is he a skillful driver whose horses 
run away with him ? Forgive, and you overcome the 
might of hell. Evil spirits are seeking to gain con- 
trol of you, to use you for their own malignant ends. 
Yield to anger, to revenge, and they have won. You 
are theirs. Resist them and you remand them to the 
dungeons whence they came. Love is stronger than 
hell, for in love is the might of God. Forgive, and 



274 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

you overcome your enemy. You can never conquer 
him through hatred. You may harm him, kill him, 
he will hate you still and curse you with his latest 
breath. You can never overcome evil with evil any 
more than you can extinguish fire with fire. Hate 
kindles hate as flame kindles flame. " Overcome evil 
with good." To meet evil with evil is to increase it, 
to meet evil with good is to destroy it. A certain 
king was admonished upon his deathbed to forgive 
his enemies. " They are all dead," was the grim 
reply. Another said, " I destroy my enemies by 
making them my friends." Which is the better way? 
To forgive is to cast out evil from your enemy's 
heart and from your own. To seek revenge is to 
kindle the flames of hell in both. Selfishness leads 
easily to hatred, love leads always to forgiveness. 
Love " seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh 
not account of evil." These go together. Do not 
fancy that because love thinks no evil it goes 
through life blind and stupid, that it has no discern- 
ment, no discrimination. Love looks out upon the 
world with the eyes of God. If the world appears to 
us so gross, so corrupt, how must it appear to him 
who is infinitely holy? Yet God sees the good in the 
world though it be only as a grain of mustard seed, 
broods over it, cherishes it. He recognizes the good 
that lingers in the heart of man however depraved he 
may be, appeals to it, lays hold upon it, until the 
sinner becomes a saint. He who hates sin with all 
the energy of his infinite nature is quick to forgive 
the sinner, because sin can be overcome only by love, 



THE THOUGHTS OF LOVE 275 

You cannot beat sin out of a man, but you may love 
a man out of sin. 

Whence did Paul draw his inspiration? Who sat 
for this portrait of love? There is nothing like it in 
literature. Compare with it the eulogy of Plato: 
" Love is our Lord supplying kindness and banish- 
ing unkindness, giving friendship and forgiving en- 
mity, the joy of the good, the wonder of the wise, 
the amazement of the gods; desired by those who 
have no part in him and precious to those who have 
the better part in him ; parent of delicacy, luxury, 
desire, fondness, softness, grace ; careful of the good, 
uncareful of the evil. In every word, work, wish, 
fear pilot, helper, defender, saviour; glory of God 
and men, leader best and brightest, in whose foot- 
steps let every man follow, chanting a hymn and 
joining in that fair strain with which love charms the 
souls of gods and men." These are fine words but 
how abstract, how cold, how vague, how impersonal 
they are beside these words of Paul that glow with 
beauty and throb with life ! How partial and imper- 
fect is the representation they give compared with 
his. Mohammed, too, spoke of love but dwelt only 
on a single aspect of it. " Every good act is charity ; 
your smiling in your brother's face ; your putting a 
wanderer in the right road ; your giving water to the 
thirsty or exhortations to others to do right." A 
man's true wealth hereafter is the good he has done 
in this world to his fellow men. When he dies peo- 
ple will ask, "What property has he left behind 
him?" but the angels will ask, " What good deeds has 



276 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

he sent before him ?" There is a largeness, a breadth, 
a spirit, a personality in Paul's description that we 
do not find elsewhere. We suspect that this portrait 
was painted from life. It is not a fancy sketch, a 
creature of the imagination. Paul did not look into 
his own heart and write. He did not reach this mag- 
nificent conception of love through reflection or 
through experience. He did not think it out for him- 
self. He did not derive it from Jewish rabbis or 
Greek philosophers. He drew from life. Love as- 
sumed a human form, came from heaven to earth, 
dwelt among men in a world of sorrow and of sin, 
endured their trials and their griefs, was subject to 
their temptations, yet remained pure and steadfast 
to the end. Paul looked upon Christ, and pictured 
perfect love. Christ promised that the Spirit should 
reveal him to the hearts of his disciples, and as the 
Spirit made him known to Paul, line by line, feature 
by feature, he reproduced the lineaments of his char- 
acter, and when the work was done he called it love. 
Trace the correspondence point by point. What do 
you find in Jesus Christ that is not in love, what do 
you find in love that is not in him? He and love are 
one. The portrait of love could not be painted until 
he appeared. In him the love of God is revealed, in 
him men learn to love. Read this chapter in the 
light of the gospel story and see how in every detail 
his life bears out the likeness. There is no quality 
ascribed to love which he does not illustrate in per- 
fect degree. If God is love, we have in Christ love 



THE THOUGHTS OF LOVE 277 

in human form; for in him dwelleth all the fulness 
of the Godhead bodily. 

If this be true we may trust him with all our 
hearts. We shall find in him the supply of all our 
need. The love that suffereth long and is kind, that 
is not easily provoked, that taketh not account of 
evil, that beareth all things, believeth all things, 
hopeth all things, endureth all things, that never 
faileth that is the love we sinners need. He is slow 
to punish, else we had long since been cut off in our 
sins ; he is quick to pardon. He is very patient with 
us, forgiving not seven times only but seventy times 
seven. Read this story of love, and remember that 
whatever is said of love is true of him. You need 
him, you may trust yourself to him with your whole 
heart. You may commit yourself to him with all 
confidence. He never turned away the meanest or 
the vilest soul that sought his care. He speaks to 
you with the voice of love, he opens to you the arms 
of love, he offered for you the sacrifice of love, he 
lifts for you the prayer of love in the upper King- 
dom, he sends the spirit of love to your heart. If any 
man be lost it is because he has trampled underfoot 
the bleeding love of the Son of God. If love fails, 
God can do no more, for love is his very self. The 
utmost energy of God goes forth in love. 

It is ours not only to trust his love, but to reflect 
it. He saw the evil of the world with far keener eyes 
than ours, but he did not like to dwell upon it. He 
was quick to detect the better nature in men. If 
there was a spark of holiness in a sinner's heart he 



278 THE WALL AND THE GATES 

saw it and sought to kindle it to a flame. Believe in 
God, believe in man. Believe there is something of 
the godlike yet remaining in every man, and that 
God is able to renew every man in his image. Do 
not spend your time groping in the dirt. Let your 
thoughts lift themselves, spread their wings. There 
is heaven above as well as earth beneath. Watch 
for the good in man. Have faith in man because you 
have faith in God. The world is moving toward the 
Kingdom. There are shallows and eddies in the 
stream, but the waters are flowing to the sea. As 
you need forgiveness, forgive. God is not strict to 
mark your iniquities, you need not keep rigid ac- 
count with your neighbor. Forget the favors you do 
and the wrongs you suffer. Remember the favors 
you receive and the wrongs you do. " Love thyself 
last." Remember that God is greater than you are 
and your brother as good as you, and you will not 
stand so watchfully upon your rights and dignity. 
Love God first, and your neighbor as yourself. That 
is not easy, but there are heights beyond. " Love, as 
I have loved you," said the Master. That is the love 
that loves others better than self, that shrinks from 
no sacrifice on their behalf, that is prepared to sur- 
render life itself for another's good. " He laid down 
his life for us : and we ought to lay down our lives 
for the brethren." Only as the spirit of Christ 
dwells within us can we imitate his love, so that our 
lives too may correspond in some imperfect measure 
to this matchless portrait of our Master, drawn by 
the hand of the great apostle. 



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